'The Avengers' begins: First set-photo from Day 1 of filming

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Published on April 26, 2011 01:24PM EDT

Ah, absence makes the heart grow fonder…

Joss Whedon has spent one day shooting this little movie known as The Avengers, and right now all we have to see from it is this pic from the set. Apparently the actors have chairs that identify them not by name, but by character. (Just me, but I think they should have made Hulk’s twice as big and kind of broken.)

You know the players: Serenity and Buffy the Vampire Slayer geekdom cult-hero Whedon is directing from his own script, and Robert Downey Jr. reprises the role of Iron Man, with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo joining the Marvel universe as the human half of the Hulk.

Marvel Studios confirms some other casting tidbits: Tom Hiddleston, who plays the villainous, trickster god Loki in Thor, is confirmed to join the cast, along with Stellan Skarsgard, who co-stars in Thor as Professor Eric Selvig, an astrophysicist researching the celestial link between the god-world of Asgard and Earth.

Cobie Smulders, from TV’s How I Met Your Mother, is another newcomer to the Marvel world, playing SHIELD agent Maria Hill, while Clark Gregg, the thread linking many of these movies, is once again playing Agent Phil Coulson. As previously reported, of course, The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner is in as the archer Hawkeye, and Scarlett Johansson returns as her Iron Man 2 character Black Widow, while Samuel L. Jackson, who kicked off the whole thing with that post-credits cameo in 2008’s Iron Man, is back as the man with a patch, SHIELD mastermind Nick Fury.

The movie is currently shooting in Albuquerque, N.M., and will later move to Cleveland, Ohio, (Why? Does Hulk need something to smash? Kidding, Cleveland!) and New York City. The Avengers will be out May 4, 2012, though we’ll be seeing a lot more about it between now and then.

Meanwhile, what do you think of this snazzy new SHIELD logo?

For more movie news, follow Anthony Breznican on Twitter: @Breznican

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