Salute the flag with this patriotic Captain America clothing

Marvel’s all American hero is heading to the big screen – finally!

For us fans of red, white and blue hero, Captain America, the past few years have been a pretty rocky road. Bringing the ever-popular Marvel Comics superhero to the big screen has been one of Hollywood’s obsessions for over a decade, its progress dogged by everything from lawsuits to the writers’ strike which effectively turned out the lights in Tinseltown back in 2007/ 08. Personnel have come and gone, with other Marvel movie directors such as Jon Favreau (Iron Man and Iron Man 2) and Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) linked with the project and every leading man with a bit of brawn talked up as a potential Steve Rogers.

It’s been a long and slow slog, but finally it seems like we’re now getting somewhere. Texas-born director Joe Johnston (The Wolfman, Jurassic Park III) signed on in November 2008 and over a year later announced that shooting for The First Avenger: Captain America (to give it its full title) would begin shooting in April 2010 (any day now then!). Naturally speculation about who’d get to wield the indestructible shield as the ultimate All American hero went through the roof, with every Hollywood agent busting their balls to get their guy in the picture.

TV stars such as John Krasinski (The Office: An American Workplace), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights) were talked up; as were virtual unknowns such as Garrett Hedlund (the upcoming Tron Legacy) and even established A-listers like southern surfer dude Matthew McConaughey were mentioned. But all the online polls, furious fan debates and casting crises went out the window last month when Chris Evans was confirmed as our masked hero.

He’s experienced in the superhero world, having helped save the world not once but twice as Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch in the kiddie-friendly Fantastic Four flicks and has two other upcoming comic book adaptations due out this year, The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. He’s a familiar face rather than a complete unknown though importantly is not too starry as to overwhelm the movie and, and… well we could go on, but let’s just say we’re psyched about the casting and reckon he’ll make a good job of it.

Recent news has confirmed that he’ll be joined in the big-budget blockbuster by Sebastian Stan (Gossip Girl’s Carter Baizen – ask your girlfriend) as sidekick Bucky Barnes (he auditioned for the big role, missed out, yet impressed the producers enough to still bag a role – nice job) and Hugo Weaving, (who worked with Johnston on The Wolfman) could be onboard as resident villain, Red Skull.

And they’d better get a move on if they’re gonna hit that April starting schedule and the July 2011 release date, not to mention fitting in the time to film all the other adventures Marvel has promised us, most excitingly The Avengers with Evans sharing the screen with the likes of fellow kick-ass crime fighters Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and maybe even the Hulk (Edward Norton). We’re counting down to 22nd July already!