Jennifer Garner returning as Elektra in Deadpool 3

It has been almost 20 years since she played Marvel Comics’ assassin antiheroine

The Hollywood Reporter said the actress will return to the role of Marvel Comics’ assassin antiheroine, after nearly 20 years away.

The Marvel Studios production is currently shooting, with Ryan Reynolds reprising his part of the fourth-wall-breaking Merc with a Mouth and Hugh Jackman coming out of retirement to play Wolverine.

Garner first played the Marvel assassin in 20th Century Fox’s Daredevil, the 2003 feature that starred Ben Affleck as the Man Without Fear. The film flopped, but spawned a spinoff, with Garner toplining solo act Elektra two years later. That too, was not a hit, but it was noteworthy as Garner was one of the few women to lead a studio comic book movie at the time, THR noted.

News of her return comes as rumours swirl around Affleck possibly reprising his role as Matt Murdock / Daredevil in Deadpool 3 and after Garner starred alongside Deadpool franchise star, Reynolds, in Netflix's The Adam Project. The movie was also helmed by Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy.

Deadpool 3 will also star Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Stefan Kapičić as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, and Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen in currently-unknown roles.

In an earlier interview with Collider, Reynolds explained: "I think you're giving me too much credit.

"I don't believe that I'm responsible for Hugh coming back. I always wanted Hugh to come back. My first meeting with Kevin Feige when Disney bought Fox years ago, maybe three years ago, or three and a half, four years ago, I'm not sure, was about doing a movie with the two of us, a Deadpool Wolverine movie. And that was not possible at the time.

"And then Hugh just happened to call at that perfect moment and express that he'd be interested in coming back and doing this one more time. And the contents of that conversation, I'll let Hugh, because I know it's only inevitable that you and Hugh are going to speak at some point soon, I'm sure. I'll let Hugh answer that on his own. But he expressed interest in coming back, and then it was my job to take that to Kevin Feige one more time and sell it."

Following Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios has been gradually folding the X-Men characters into the MCU, beginning with Deadpool 3.

According to Reynolds, the movie's grounding in the franchise presents a fun new challenge.

"Deadpool, for me, is kind of like an anxiety inducing tightrope walk," Reynolds previously told ComicBook.com.

"I always think when I've got Deadpool just right, I'm speaking from experience from Deadpool 1 & 2, that I need to make it 30 to 40 per cent better than it already is. Even if I'm at the moment where I'm like, 'This is perfect, this moment!' Then, I stop and I go, 'Okay, this has to be 30 per cent better than it already is.'

"It's a stressful thing to get right, or at least right as far as I'm concerned. So, no, I never really thought about it but I did love the idea of playing with Deadpool and Korg in some of the marketing materials given the fact that Taika [Waititi] and I are in the movie. So, I kinda got to scratch the itch, inevitably anyway."

Originally, the film was meant to be released in cinemas across the globe on 3 May 2024, however, Disney pulled back the release time to six months earlier, with it now due to hit screen on 8 November.

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