EXCLUSIVE: The derby to land the lead role of Starlord Peter Quill in Guardians Of The Galaxy has gotten even more interesting. Marvel Studios has added Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the list of actors they are considering for what is seen as its next major franchise launch.

Deadline reported that Marvel had made test deals with Zero Dark Thirty‘s Joel Edgerton, Boardwalk Empire‘s Jack Huston, Cloud Atlas‘ Jim Sturgess, Lee Pace (who has roles in both Lincoln and The Hobbit), and Eddie Redmayne from Les Miserables. More recently, Zachary Levi was identified as a candidate.

I’m not sure if Gordon-Levitt has been offered the role and nobody would comment, but he’s in the mix. He is just coming out of the superhero movie The Dark Knight Rises, which left him in an intriguing position as Chris Nolan’s film trilogy concluded.

James Gunn is directing the film, and Quill is the Guardians leader who is the offspring of a human mother and an alien father. Guardians Of The Galaxy first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1969 but didn’t get its own series until the 1990s. Quill leads a group of alien superheros who team to protect the solar system from an evil alien race. The good guys are from the future, and another dimension. In the comics, the Guardians worked with The Avengers, so there should be opportunities to use Marvel’s big franchises to help launch the new one. That gives Disney a deep space companion to its plans to resuscitate Star Wars.

There has also been mention of interest in Garrett Hedlund, James Marsden (he already played Cyclops in X-Men, but then again Chris Evans played Fantastic Four‘s Human Torch before landing Captain America), and Edgerton’s Animal Kingdom co-star Sullivan Stapleton.