Turns out Kevin Pennington won’t be playing Noh-Varr or Rick Jones in the AVENGERS, as had previously been rumored. He let a couple tweets slip out last spring revealed he’d be playing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and it turns out that the specific agent is somewhere between the aforementioned two. He’ll be playing Wendell Vaughn, better known as Quasar.
While the one-time Protector of the Universe is currently policing the whole galaxy as a member of the Annihilators, he actually started off a lowly security officer on detail for a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility that housed the Uranian’s powerful Quantum Bands. When A.I.M attacked the facility, Vaughn put on the bands himself and went on to have a long career as a superhero (first as member of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s super team, then as a journeyman traveling the universe.)
This scoop came Moviefone (via Comic Book Movie) because of a press release for a recruitment drive S.H.I.E.L.D. will be running in New York sometime soon. With Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg (the guy who plays Agent Phil Coulson) in attendance for photo ops, it sounds like some kind of viral spin on a typical press junket or appearance. Though, who knows, maybe it'll actually be an open casting call for extras to play S.H.I.E.LD. agents. == TEASER ==
My sense is that the Vaughn is just going to be a regular agent in this movie. Though, if the rumors about the Avengers fighting the Skrulls work out, I suspect the intention's to set him up to be some kind of cumulative Kree avatar in the sequels. Like maybe he’ll have Quasar’s origin, but wear Noh-Varr’s outfit and serve in Mar-Vell’s role. Do you think maniacs think that sounds about right?