The Avengers Adds Amanda Righetti As An Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This Friday’s Captain America: The First Avenger, an origin story directed by Joe Johnston, is the final piece in the puzzle waiting to drop before Marvel Studios can start hyping next summer’s all-star Avengers film, directed by Joss Whedon. Yet with Comic-Con happening the same weekend as Cap’s premiere, it is creating a perfect storm of superhero rumors and news items that promises to rain down Avengers items on a charged-up fan base.

First, there was news that a full Avengers trailer would be the post-credit sequence on Captain America. Then there were the trailer leaks, which are gone (but can still be found if you dig around). And now we have fresh casting news, namely that Amanda Righetti, star of The Mentalist amd Marcus Nispel’s Friday the 13th reboot, will appear on both Johnston and Whedon’s films as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Daily Blam, which has the story, couldn’t confirm which character from the Avengers universe Righetti would be playing, though speculation tied her to either Carol Danvers (who’d go on to become Ms. Marvel in the comic books) or Sharon Carter. The latter makes much more sense as that character is niece to Peggy Carter, who is the character Haley Atwell is playing in Johnston’s Captain adventure. And we’ve already seen the studio’s proclivity toward keeping things in the family. Look for Howard Stark, Tony’s father, in the pivotal scene where Chris Evans is transformed from meek Steve Rogers into massive Cap, after all.

But how much screen time can Righetti hope to coax from Mr. Whedon? He already has to juggle the likes of Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner Samuel L. Jackson, Stan Lee (in a cameo) and whomever else walks by the film’s set. If she gets a line, she’ll be lucky. Expect even more Avengers news as the week progresses.