With Iron Man 2 winning the box office again this week, Marvel fans are no doubt getting increasingly pumped for Joss Whedon's The Avengers. But while Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Cap make-up the nucleus of the super-powered team, there are other members that round out the ranks such as Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Wasp and Scarlet Witch. While these characters won't be receiving individual movies before 2012, they are almost guaranteed to be in the film. So now the big question: who will they cast? Let the speculation begin.
Nathan Fillion and Kevin Pennington may be up for the roles of Ant-Man and Hawkeye, respectively. An inside source tells Marvelous News that Fillion is "pretty much locked to be Henry Pym [Ant-Man], and should be announced before any other new additions to the cast." Going further, the source expects the announcement to be made during the San Diego Comic-Con. As for Pennington, the source said that the actor "will be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but also a fan favorite character from the comics" though "the origin may be changed to fit in the movie, and may never have been in S.H.I.E.L.D. or Avengers in the comics."
Going through the Pennington's Twitter account, the site also picked up clues that confirmed at least some of the source's information, such as the fact that he has signed a three-picture deal with Marvel Studios and that his character won't be wearing a mask. Those tweets have since been deleted.
Just like any casting rumor surrounding a Marvel project, there are denials and questions. The Playlist recently got in touch with Edgar Wright, still attached as the director of the upcoming Ant-Man, and asked him about the Fillion casting, to which he replied, "Not as far as I know!" As for Pennington, the original incarnation of Hawkeye did wear a mask (though the character only wore a stylish pair of shades in the Ultimates series).
Fillion deserves to be Ant-Man if only because he seems so desperate to be a super-hero. In the past year, the actor was in the running for the lead role in Martin Campbell's Green Lantern, signed on to James Gunn's amateur hero film Super, and has expressed interest in a movie version of The Greatest American Hero. Add the fact that it would allow him to reunite with Whedon post-Serenity/Firefly and you have stars lining up in a way that can't be ignored.
