Hayley Atwell To Play Cap’s Love Interest in ‘Captain America’

While there’s plenty of down time between now and principal photography for Marvel’s upcoming Captain America film, this is still the more interesting process, where the studio starts to leak out casting news for the film.

We first heard that Chris Evans would be portraying the lead role of Steve Rogers/Captain America about a month ago, then news broke about a week later that Sebastian Stan will be playing Bucky Barnes. Now here we are, nearly one week later, and it’s now being reported that Marvel has found Cap’s squeeze in actress Hayley Atwell. From THR:

The character Atwell will play is named Peggy Carter, who in comics lore not only dated Captain America but was an agent helping the French Resistance. She later became the aunt of Sharon Carter, Captain America’s love in modern times.

Atwell is known among UK acting circles for her work in period movies such as “Brideshead Revisited” and “The Duchess.” The actress, repped by CAA and United Agents, appeared in AMC’s recent remake of “The Prisoner” and will be seen in the upcoming epic miniseries “The Pillars of the Earth.”

There is still plenty of casting news that we’re all waiting to hear, including a solid word on the rumor that Hugo Weaving would be playing the main villain in the film, The Red Skull. Also, it would be nice to hear how the film plans to fit into the rest of Marvel’s planned films such as Iron Man 2, Thor, and Joss Whedon’s Avengers.

Captain America begins shooting in England this summer, and is currently slated for a July 22, 2011 release date.