She isn’t Cobie Smulders. She isn’t Natalie Portman (though given the events of the end of Thor: The Dark World, that would make a lot of sense). Instead, the identity of the mystery woman standing next to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in the recent trailer for Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron finally has been revealed to be actress Claudia Kim.
We suspected as much, though Yahoo Movies confirmed that it’s Claudia Kim in the trailer. You can spot her, briefly, at the 38-second mark of the trailer. She’s part of the party being thrown at Stark Tower – the one that’s rudely interrupted by James Spader’s puppet-spewing Ultron:
And she surfaces in the longer clip that was later shared on ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which we also ran in the site. Check that one out below, and look for her sitting next to Black Widow around the 51-second mark:
OK, great. So, Marvel is admitting on the record that Claudia Kim – who was hired back in March 2014 in what the studio confirmed is a substantial supporting role. Reports have linked her character to Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), suggesting that she’s a lab technician who works in Stark’s offices. Back in the day, Black Widow infiltrated Stark’s corporation in order to keep tabs on him. Is this a similar move, perhaps on HYDRA’s part? Basically, is she friend, or foe? Is she The Wasp?! (She’s probably not The Wasp…)
Given all that we have learned about Avengers: Age of Ultron lately, I’m intrigued – and encouraged – by the fact that there still are mysteries lurking in the shadows of Ultron’s master plan. Of course, Marvel laid a lot of its cards on the table with the reveal of all of its projects between now and 2019. How will Claudia Kim factor in? Will she factor in at all? Stay on for the ride, and Marvel will reveal what it can, in due time.
