Marvel Introduces Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner to The Avengers

A film that has been a dream for decades is finally shaping into reality. Its called The Avengers and the movie represents the ultimate team up of Marvel super heroes. You’ve heard of the X-Men and The Fantastic Four teams. You know individual heroes, such as Spider-Man and Iron-Man. Well, the truly phenomenal thing about The Avengers, is that at one time or another in the comic book’s history, members of those teams, as well as exciting loner heroes, have been on The Avengers team roster. The possibilities are mind boggling, especially when you marvel at an ensemble cast of that magnitude.

Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were fabulous films, but they have been leading us elsewhere. The mere cameo of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, suggested The Avengers film would one day came into being. As Marvel Studios further used Robert Downey, Jr.’s blockbusters to set up (in however subtle ways) upcoming projects Thor and Captain America: the First Avenger (due in theaters May 20th, 2011 and July 22nd, respectively) fans could only wait with baited breath for more concrete news of a movie that would bring all the characters together. (See props from those upcoming films!)

At last the wait is over. According to PopWatch.com, Comic Con, that Mecca of Geek-dom, was the backdrop to new casting news. Actor Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island) will be the new Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk in The Avengers. He steals the title from Eric Bana (Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003) and Edward Norton (2008′s The Incredible Hulk). It was also announced Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) will portray Hawkeye (a highly skilled archery expert).

Joss Whedon will direct the film. If you don’t think the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer mastermind is qualified to take the helm, you may need to re-evalutate. Whedon wrote a great 24-issue run of comics called Astonishing X-Men featuring favorites like Shadowcat, Wolverine, and Beast. According to SuperHeroHype.com, Iron Man director Jon Favreau will be executive producer to The Avengers.

So, which big names join Ruffalo’s Hulk and Renner’s Hawkeye? So far the rest of The Avengers team is made up of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson, Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man and Don Cheadle as War Machine. You can make your Marvel at the film’s May 4, 2012 release.