It might not be official yet, but it looks pretty certain that Hayley Atwell will be returning for the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel given her quote to Bleeding Cool earlier this month – “I can’t say yet because it hasn’t been officially released, and Marvel are very protective of their franchise” she said when pressed on her involvement. A yes then. But even if she does reprise Peggy Carter in the WWII flashback portions of the movie, that still leaves Cap alone in the present. Hence directors Joe and Anthony Russo have started the search for a possible love interest for the Super Soldier in the present. Deadline have got the scoop on the shortlist for THE WINTER SOLDIER’s female lead and it runs as follows…

Alison Brie (COMMUNITY; SCREAM 4; awesome)

Imogen Poots (superb in the FRIGHT NIGHT remake)

Teresa Palmer (I AM NUMBER FOUR; THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE)

Jessica Brown Findlay (MISFITS; DOWNTON bloody ABBEY)

Emilia Clarke (GAME OF THRONES’ very own Daenerys Targaryen. AKA “Calisi!”)

A very strong shortlist to be sure, we’d be happy for any one of these contenders to bag the role, but if the character they’ll be testing for happens to be ‘Sharon’ Cater, we have to ask – why not just cast Atwell again? That’d be kinda neat, right? No? Too goofy? Ah well.

In additional WINTER SOLDIER news, another name apparently confirmed (via Variety) is none other than…

…which is fantastic, but we were burnt once when we were also promised a Black Widow appearance in IRON MAN 3, only to have it prove false. So we’ll hang on until Marvel Studios make it official before getting too enthusiastic.

MARVEL PHASE TWO Release Schedule:

Mark these dates in your calendars…

April 26th 2013 – IRON MAN 3

Nov 8th 2013 – THOR: THE DARK WORLD

(TBC) 2013 – S.H.I.E.L.D.

April 4th 2014 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Aug 1st 2014 – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

May 1st 2015 – UNTITLED MARVEL’S AVENGERS SEQUEL

(TBC) – ANT-MAN

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