Just the other day, we told you about Samuel L. Jackson (The Killing Game, Meeting Evil) sitting down on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and dropping some details about Nick Fury’s upcoming cinematic appearances, and revealing that Fury will have a new female sidekick in The Avengers.

Jackson had this to say about his new female sidekick in the forthcoming Joss Whedon directed superhero team-up, The Avengers:

“I gotta screen test like five actresses on Friday. They have this new character who I guess is like my sidekick, or something that’s like with me all the time. So, they’re auditioning girls for it.”

Early reports stated that Morena Baccarin (V, Serenity) was the top contender for the role and others said to by vying for the part were Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Thing), Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield, Friends with Benefits) and Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother).

While there had been rampant speculation about Baccarin playing Janet Van Dyne/The Wasp going back to the earliest rumors of director Edgar Wright‘s big-screen adaptation of Ant-Man. We reminded you not to forget that the Marvel movie universe tends to pull from various comic book continuities. While there’s no denying that Baccarin has the physical similarities to pull of The Wasp, she’s also a real-life doppelganger for the Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch created character, Maria Hill.

Now, Deadline has confirmed that the character in question is, in-fact SHIELD Agent Maria Hill, and after her recent audition, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) has emerged as the front runner for the role. Smulders and Whedon are not strangers, apparently Smulders had been a contender for the role of Wonder Woman when director Joss Whedon was shepherding his big-screen adaptation.

I guess this leaves the role of Janet Van Dyne/The Wasp open for Baccarin to take at some point.

Maria Hill has appeared in Marvel Comics since 2005, and has also had appearances in both Iron Man: Armored Adventures and, according to Wikipedia she will be a major character featured in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes voiced by Kari Wührer. She appears as a central member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a protege of Nick Fury serving as his second-in-command and being explicitly taken for tasks. She is often being corrected over mistakes or quizzed on her knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. affairs. She maintains her comic self’s hard-edged and aggressive nature as seen in the episode “Iron Man is Born” where she immediately tried to arrest Iron Man at gunpoint when he took a threatening stance towards Fury.

Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, Ray Stevenson and Jaimie Alexander is slated to hit theaters on May 6th, 2011.

Captain America: The First Avenger starring Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Neal McDonough, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Toby Jones is slated to hit theaters on July 22nd, 2011.

The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon and starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg and Tom Hiddleston is slated to hit theaters on May 4th, 2012.