Emily Blunt In Talks To Join Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer

Stop me if you've heard this one before, folks, but director Christopher Nolan is once again making major moves to fill out the cast of his latest high-profile project. "Oppenheimer" has been reported to revolve around the actions of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who spearheaded the Manhattan Project and was ultimately the man responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians at the tail-end of World War II.

With Cillian Murphy already attached as the lead, new reports indicate that actor Emily Blunt will also be joining the cast as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine "Kitty" Vissering Oppenheimer, reuniting the pair after they starred in this year's "A Quiet Place Part II." You know what that means, right? In a departure from Nolan's usual tendencies ("Tenet" excluded, refreshingly enough), the film won't focus on a lead character who has a dead wife!

Deadline brings the news of Emily Blunt's casting for "Oppenheimer," which will once again have her act opposite of Cillian Murphy after their work on "A Quiet Place: Part 2." While Murphy has worked with Nolan on a number of occasions (though never in a lead role, as he will be doing here), this will mark the first collaboration between Nolan and Blunt. It's likely that their appearance together in John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place" sequel played a big factor in reuniting them for "Oppenheimer," though it's safe to say their relationship here will be much different from the post-apocalyptic tension of the latter film. Blunt is coming off the wildly successful twin-billings (adjusted for the pandemic) of "A Quiet Place: Part 2" and Disney's "Jungle Cruise," both of which have further solidified her status as an A-list actor who would fit right in with a typical Nolan cast. The rest of the cast members are as of yet unknown, although the report describes it to be "an all-star ensemble" when it's all said and done.

The film is sure to feature plenty of drama in and of itself, given the intense and controversial subject matter, but the actual production of "Oppenheimer" has come with intrigue of its own. Following Nolan's very public falling-out with Warner Bros., Universal won the intense bidding war over the rights to finance and distribute Nolan's next project.

The movie is set to begin filming in early 2022 and will release on Nolan's coveted summer spot of July 21, 2023.