'Captain America: The First Avenger' Update 03.17.11

The Red Skull, Howling Commandos, and a new image of Cap...


After the first footage we got to see during the Superbowl, I can say excitement increased for the movie, while various opinions on the film remain unchanged. There's still alot of doubt over Joe Johnson's ability to give us the Cap movie we want to see, as well as Evans giving us a good Steve Rogers. 


But nobody has questioned Hugo Weaving's casting as the Red Skull. We got a brief look at him in the trailer, and now we get our first official look at Weaving as the Red Skull.

Also a role previously unannounced has been rooted out, further confirming the involvement of the Howling Commandos. SuperHeroHype reports:

The fact that actor Derek Luke was even in Marvel Studios' Captain America: The First Avenger was kept on the down low for quite some time until people noticed his name on the poster. At the time, no one knew who he was going to play with conjecture ranging from Sam Wilson (aka The Falcon) to Isaiah Bradley (the African-American man who also too part in the Super Soldier experiment) to a younger Nick Fury or even his father Jack Fury, a character created for an episode of  "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

  

The intrepid Wilson Morales at BlackFilm did a bit of legwork and found out that Luke is in fact playing...

Gabe Jones of The Howling Commandos!

Confirming Kevin Feige's earlier statement that Nick Fury's old WWII fighting unit would be in the movie, Jones was introduced as a member of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos way back in 1963, and later became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent under Fury.

Derek Luke got his start playing the title role in Denzel Washington's directorial debut Antwone Fisher before playing key roles in the indie Pieces of April and sports movies Friday Night Lights and Glory Road. More recently, he played a soldier in Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna and Sean Combs in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious as well as appearing in Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail.

This is good news for those of us hoping for a rich story comprised of some of the best WWII characters that Marvel has to offer. Of course, no word on whether a young Nick Fury(played by Samuel L. Jackson) will make an appearance as the leader. Maybe Sammy will play himself, using some of the CG de-aging process used in Tron: Legacy.


And finally, Splashpage has a new pic showing a bruised and bleeding Captain America, plus the official synopsis of the film:

Courtesy of Spoiler TV, here's the official "Captain America: The First Avenger" synopsis:

Synopsis: Captain America: The First Avenger” will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. As Captain America, Rogers joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to wage war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving.)

Captain America: The First Avenger comes out 06.22.11