The intrepid Wilson Morales at BlackFilm did a bit of legwork and found out that Luke is in fact playing…
Gabe Jones of The Howling Commandos!
Confirming Kevin Feige’s earlier statement that Nick Fury’s old WWII fighting unit would be in the movie, Jones was introduced as a member of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos way back in 1963, and later became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent under Fury.
Derek Luke got his start playing the title role in Denzel Washington’s directorial debut Antwone Fisher before playing key roles in the indie Pieces of April and sports movies Friday Night Lights and Glory Road. More recently, he played a soldier in Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna and Sean Combs in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious as well as appearing in Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail.
There’s still no word whether we’ll actually see a younger version of Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the movie leading the Commandos or whether we’ll have some explanation how someone fighting during WWII can still be in active government duty without being frozen in an iceberg, but we have confidence that all will be explained when Captain America: The First Avenger opens on July 22!
