im also surprised not to see Emily Blunt mentioned. honestly, though, and as much as people will surely jump down my throat about this, i believe Jennifer Lawrence would be the ideal choice.
from what ive read about the character, someone of Lawrence's age may be the most appropriate, despite the uninitiated blindly insisting that she is too young for the role...
"The suggested timeline is that Carol is born in 1938, joins the Air Force in 1956, joins the CIA in 1963 (her CIA cases are pretty firmly set in the early 60s in the published flashbacks), and joins NASA in 1967 (the publication date). She leaves NASA in 1975 and becomes the editor of Woman magazine in 1977 (the publication date).
Beyond the publication dates, there are unusually clear data points establishing Danvers as being quite older than ?modern? super-heroes. At one point we see Warren Worthington III, aged about 12, in the same scene as Danvers, aged about 26 ; we also know that Carol was busted out of Lubyanka when Rogue was about nine years old. Lastly Danvers seems to be of roughly the same age as the Black Widow, who has a documented anagathic factor, whenever they cross paths.
This chronology leads to the conclusion that Danvers? ageing is considerably slowed down, and/or that she was rejuvenated. Her ageing likely starts slowing down in 1958 - in 1977 she looks about 28 or 30 whereas by our timeline she should be pushing forty, and in 2007 she can?t look a day older than 32 whereas by our timeline she would be nearly 70." - See more at: http://www.writeups.org/fiche.php?id=4493#sthash.dIWsQvFh.dpuf
given that the film is scheduled to be released in November of 2018, that would put Jennifer at 27 at the time of filming, and given that she has a naturally youthful appearance, this would serve the franchise well in the long run, just as it has for X-Men, what with Mystiques slow aging properties coinciding with Jennifer's appearance. as awesome a job as i think Emily Blunt would do with the part, i dont think it would be particularly wise to cast someone in their mid-thirties to play a character who apparently ages very slowly. while Lawrence would be 27 at the time of shooting the first film, Blunt would be pushing 35. and a sequel would probably be shot post-2020.
aside from that, Captain Marvel would supposedly be the most powerful member of The Avengers by the time she is introduced, so it would probably also be of benefit to the franchise if she is played by someone whose star power rivals that of Robert Downey Jr.
i cant see her taking the part, but Lawrence does seem to be the most appropriate choice, as far as known performers go. honestly, it seems like a great opportunity. she is obviously a bit burnt out by the blockbusters, but since she is now officially finished with The Hunger Games, and Apocalypse will likely be her final X-Men film, she could replace the two of them with Captain Marvel, which would see her doing a blockbuster film once every few years, rather than every single year. and speaking of The Hunger Games, i believe Francis Lawrence would be an excellent choice (and i also think they should not hire a female director simply for the sake of hiring a female director). he has done an excellent job with the last couple of HG films, and since Carol Danvers is apparently a more serious character, he would be a great choice for director.
