With much of the casting process held in Marvel’s top secret bunker, zero news had leaked out about the hunt for someone to play Nick Fury’s female sidekick in The Avengers. Until, that is, Samuel L Jackson gabbed about it on a talk show and the list of front-runners snuck out shortly after. But the list is down to one as actress Cobie Smulders is in final negotiations to star as Maria Hill.
Deadline was the first to bring the news that Smulders was the clear front-runner in a field that also included Serenity/V actress Morena Baccarin, Scott Pilgrim’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cloverfield’s Jessica Lucas, with the Heat Vision blog now confirming the choice of Smulders.
For those without an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Marvel universe, Hill is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D who eventually becomes executive director of the organisation after Nick Fury goes into hiding following a massive scandal. She’s a superb fighter and able negotiator, but also has a mean streak and has never been above blackmailing superheroes to get her way.
It’s not known how much time Smulders will have in the Avengers – after all, she’s sharing the screen with Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo – but in true Marvel fashion, the deal for the Hill role also comes with a batch of options for other films.
While she’s had small roles in films such as Walking Tall, and got more screen time in the Broken Lizard troupe’s comedy The Slammin' Salmon, she’s been best known as hard-drinking, cigar chomping Canadian Robin Scherbatsky on TV's How I Met Your Mother.
Joss Whedon will start directing the film shortly for a release on May 4 next year.