You know, when we first heard about THE MARTIAN, I was under the impression it would be a mostly one-man-show for Matt Damon, with maybe a couple of Clooney-in-GRAVITY-type supporting roles to back him up.
Way, way off.
Ridley Scott is currently assembling an increasingly prolific cast for his adaptation of Andy Weir's novel. He'd already lined up Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, and Donald Glover, and now, he's got three more hot actors onboard: THE WINTER SOLDIER himself, Sebastian Stan, HALT AND CATCH FIRE's breakout star, Mackenzie Davis, and recent Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor.
No word who these guys are playing. There are three core groups in Wier's story, aside from Damon's Mark Watney: his fellow Ares 3 crew members attempting to return to Mars to save their stranded comrade (incluing mission commander Jessica Chastain), the NASA specialists back on Earth desperately communicating with Watney (including whiz kid Glover), and the astronaut's family (including his wife played by Wiig). But it's really looking like all those roles will be filled out by talented, big-name or rising actors, even down to the smaller ones.
Scott is certainly no stranger to ensemble casts, and he's pulling together another formidable one for this sci-fi flick, throwing off any accusations that this is looking a lot like another GRAVITY. Looking forward to see this baby in action.
THE MARTIAN lands on November 25th, 2015.
