6. She Beat A Whedonite For The Role Of Maria Hill
Cobie Smulders is now well established as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She has portrayed the character in two movies - The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier - as well of the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series and is set to reprise the role (albeit as an employee of Tony Stark this time around) in the upcoming blockbuster Avengers: Age Of Ultron. However, she was by no means the only actress in the running for the role. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, a veteran of movies based on comic books having appeared in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, was also up for it but, perhaps most impressively, given who directed the Avengers movie, so was Morena Baccarin. Baccarin is a veteran of Joss Whedons short-lived Firefly series (and its subsequent movie follow-up, Serenity) so, for him to favour Smulders over her, the How I Met Your Mother actress must have really impressed him.
