Benicio Del Toro lands mystery lead role in 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

While most of the attention the last few days has been focused on Man of Steel, and for very good reason, Marvel has quietly dominated the headlines by kicking their Guardians of the Galaxy casting into overdrive. With John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Karen Gillan all signing on in just the last week, the latest headscratcher of an addition is Benicio Del Toro, taking an unspecified lead role.

Del Toro has signed on for a multi-picture deal, meaning his character is going to be more than just a lead, but someone Marvel sees enough importance in to keep around for the long haul and appear in other films across the Marvel Universe.  We know that the Nova Corps will be a big part of the story, but Del Toro doesn't really seem like the right fit to play its main human officer, Rich Rider. A possible choice is Mar-Vell aka Captain Marvel, arguably Marvel's most iconic deep space heroes and a former member of The Avengers.  Or maybe he's just voicing the CG characters Rocket Raccoon or Groot? The story over at Deadline doesn't say whether he'll be playing a good guy or villain, and my suspicion is that it will be the latter. Perhaps an associate of Thanos? Or maybe voicing Thanos himself?

In less buzzworthy Marvel casting bits,  Chin Han (The Dark Knight), Jenny Agutter (The Avengers), Alan Dale (Lost), and Bernard White (Castle) have joined Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They'll be serving as support for top-ranking SHIELD agent Alexander Pierce, played by screen legend Robert Redford.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens on August 12t 2014, while the Captain America sequel hits a few months earlier on April 4th.