Now, THIS is an interesting couple of casting puzzles. Over the weekend, Marvelous News ran a report that actor Kevin Pennington had got some mysterious role in the AVENGERS movies. While that’s certainly a scoop, the same report nonchalantly adds that Nathan Fillion will be Hank Pym and that an official announcement regarding that will come out of SDCC.

Wait… what?

No slight to Pennington, but his only major role so far has been in the latest BEVERLY HILLS 90210 series, while Fillion is, of course, a fan favorite thanks to FIREFLY and DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG. So any news of him acting in a Marvel movie is, of course, going to be a big scoop as far as fans are concerned. The question Bleeding Cool brings up regards how his casting might jibe with Edgar Wright’s long-in-development ANT-MAN movie, which you’d assume would star Simon Pegg. Well, keeping in mind that this is still just a rumor, I’d say that there are a lot of easy ways to reconcile the two. For one, there have been, what, three Ant-Men in the comics? Fillion could just be Pym as Giant-Man in THE AVENGERS, while Pegg could be Scott Lang or Eric O’Grady as Ant-Man in his own movies. There’s also that persisting rumor that ANT-MAN would be a co-production with Pixar, meaning it could be either outside Marvel’s main movie-verse or audiences would necessarily be as discriminating about the difference in actors.

Or Fillion could just be acting in Wright’s movie, too, and that’s that.

Anyway, Pennington’s had to retract a couple of tweets regarding the details of his role. The facts, according to Marvelous News’s insider, are that he’s playing a mask-less, fan-favorite who’s been retooled as a SHIELD agent. And he isn’t playing Hawkeye. This identity puzzle seemed a little challenging but, after looking at the Wikipedia page on this actor, it seems kind of obvious.

The page’s filmography section credits him as the Avenger’s sidekick, Rick Jones.
Chew on that one!