The toughest obstacle that director Joss Whedon will have to overcome in bringing The Avengers to life is having to manage such a large cast of characters. The team of superheroes forming The Avengers team is one thing, but there will be a vast supporting cast of characters and a variety of villains rich with history from the Marvel Comics to handle as well. One new character to the movies who will see her introduction in The Avengers is S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill.

Believe it or not, production on The Avengers is about to begin in just a few weeks. It's actually happening. Many of the superheroes of our childhoods are coming together for the ultimate comic book adaptation, the most ambitious movie ever.

In what may be the first of many Avengers movies, Agent Hill will be played by How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders. Her character will act as an assistant of sorts to Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. At least, to start.

In the Marvel Comics continuity, Hill eventually takes the reins from Fury, becoming the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. We expect that with her contract likely including up to 9 films, she will eventually take charge in the films.

Zap2it was present during production of the season 6 finale of How I Met Your Mother and asked Smulders about her role in The Avengers, to which she responds with a focus on her costume in the film.

"We start in April, which is like... tomorrow. I literally leave here and I go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to shoot some scenes in a catsuit... I've tried on portions of the catsuit [and] I've seen conceptual drawings of what they want it to be. It's fascinating to me. I feel like wardrobe becomes very creative on these types of movies because they literally spend weeks designing just the pants or the emblem. It's such an all-consuming process, so I'm excited to see how it all turns out."

What she describes is not dissimilar to the costume of fellow SHIELD Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) from Iron Man 2. Once we actually see the costume we can compare the little details to the comics incarnations of the SHIELD attire, but we expect as with the Marvel Studios films so far, that it will keep very true to the comics.

Here are some images of Agent Maria Hill's costumes from different series of Marvel Comics which correspond to Smulders' "catsuit" comparison:

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Will Cobie Smulders get a haircut for the part?

Share your thoughts in the comments and with us on Twitter @rob_keyes and @screenrant.

The Avengers opens in theaters on May 4, 2012.

Source: Zap2it