The Skrulls Could Be the ‘Big Bad’ in Joss Whedon’s ‘The Avengers’

While this is definitely a cool idea, it should be noted that this piece of news is most definitely a rumor as of now and should be treated as such.

With all eyes still on Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 as it continues to make money at the worldwide box office, most Marvel fans are already ready for more from the cinematic universe. We’ve got Thor on the way next and then Joe Johnston’s Captain America. But after that, everything leads to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers in 2012.

We’ve heard we’ll see just about every Marvel character in The Avengers the company currently has the film rights to including The Hulk, Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Ant Man, and Hawkeye. Now we’re getting word that the main villains of the film could be the alien race The Skrulls.

The highlight of this insider scoop (DISCLAIMER: which has not been confirmed by the studio itself) is that the shape-changing alien race the Skrulls are being used as the main antagonists for The Avengers. Not only that, but the Skrulls will ‘brainwash’ and use the Hulk in a similar fashion Loki did in the comics.

Don’t expect a full on alien invasion, though; that will have to wait for a sequel. The Skrulls’ role will be largely clandestine, similar to the way S.H.I.E.L.D. operates.

This is a bit of a change from the comic origin of The Avengers, as it was Loki who turned the Hulk against the world, which forced the heroes to unite. The idea of the Skrulls would certainly give the film legs to stand on its own, rather than reuse the same villain from the previous year’s Thor.

If the possible announcement of The Skrulls wasn’t big enough, it seems that there’s yet another piece of possible news, as word is coming in that actor Kevin Pennington (of the rebooted 90210) is rumored to play the Kree soldier Noh-Varr, who later dons the name Nova. It was originally speculated that Pennington would play Hawkeye, but in a recent tweet from the actor, he put the kibosh on that rumor:

@KevinPenni: My big movie deal is NOT as Clint Barton/Hawkeye in the Avengers. Can’t wait to tell you more though… Renner would be excellent btw… 🙂

So with that, we can now speculate that Pennington could be taking on the role of Kree soldier Nova. Skrulls? Kree? Nova? Joss Whedon? This movie could turn out to be one of the biggest fangasms since Bambi vs. Godzilla.