Paramount’s Captain America shortlist full of relative unknowns

Deadline claims they’ve gotten their hands on the shortlist for the lead in CAPTAIN AMERICA, and that many of these wish list picks have actually been tested within the past day or so. The common thread through the group seems to be the studio wants to go relatively young and relatively unknown. Observe:

Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights)

Mike Vogel (Cloverfield)

Michael Cassidy (Privileged)

Patrick Flueger (Brothers)

Garret Hedlund (Tron Legacy)

Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl)

John Krasinski (The Office)

Outside of Crawford and Krasinski, most of these faces are pretty unknown to the general movie-going public, and it seems the studio wants an extremely fresh face for the Captain, which would explain why former rumored picks like Chris Pine, Matt Damon and Jeremy Renner are nowhere to be found.

Most of these guys could look the part I suppose (though all will need another 30 lbs of muscle), but John Krasinski seems pretty out of place here. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, and he’s quite handsome and hilarious and all that, but making Jim Halpert as Captain America? I can’t see audiences making that transition very easily.

If the Captain really is in here somewhere, my vote would be for Scott Porter, who has always impressed me on Friday Night Lights. What about you guys?

UPDATE: Cinematical recieved a tip that Krasinski is almost a sure thing at this point and the other tests were just a formality. If this is true, I honestly can’t tell if this will be the best or worst casting decision in supehero history.