Though I haven’t seen the end of The Incredible Hulk, I’ve heard the rumors, and I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to have left before the end of the credits anyway. “What if I told you we were putting together a team?” is, I believe, Tony Stark’s line at the end of the movie.

The Marvel “man of the hour” is without a doubt, Jon Favreau, who directed the blockbuster Iron Man. He has already spoken about his plans for the rest of the Iron Man series, of which he had originally envisioned as a trilogy, as well as his desire to one day direct The Avengers.

But even if he doesn’t get behind the helm for the Marvel team-up movie, Favreau has at least helped us clarify who will be on the Avengers team. Favreau told USA Today that the team’s lineup has changed throughout the years, “but the ones Marvel is talking about now are Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and Iron Man. I would love to see that.”

Now to be fair, this isn’t really news. Not breaking news, at least. We’ve known for a long time that this would be the Avengers line up, based on Marvel’s statements about hooking up their individually owned properties and what movies they were making. But this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to official confirmation.

Favreau also noted that Marvel’s plan “to team up the heroes for The Avengers, which is made up of all of the Marvel heroes they have the rights to.” Now this is also not news to many of us, who have already heard that Marvel is unable to bring in other properties like Wolverine or Spider-Man into the Avengers due to the dual rights they hold with Fox and Sony, respectively.

Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ president of production, confirms that he’s working toward the day when “heroes can cross into each other’s adventures and occasionally team up if there’s a foe too great for any one of them to handle.” Together with screenwriter Zak Penn, responsible for X2: X-Men United, Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Incredible Hulk, the pair are hoping to get the Avengers ready for summer 2011.

I will say this, though, as someone who has been following the industry, and Marvel’s dealings in particular, for awhile now: We’ve obviously heard that those 5 big names listed above will be involved in an Avengers team-up movie. But we also know that Nick Fury is going to be involved, thanks to his appearance in Iron Man (where he was played by Samuel L. Jackson).

So this got me thinking, what other Marvel characters might end up in an Avengers movie by way of linkage to a title star? We won’t be seeing Bucky, obviously, and I don’t believe War Machine was ever a member of the Avengers (correct me if I’m wrong in the comments), but what about Janet Pym?

Wife/ex-wife to Ant-Man Dr. Henry “Hank” Pym, surely we will be seeing her in Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man movie (no release date is set for this yet). But will we see her as her superhero alter-ego, The Wasp? If so, does that mean that she could make an appearance or a credited role in The Avengers, taking a place amongst a team of which she has been an integral part of in the comics?

I think it is more than likely, and it would help boost the ranks of a team with flagging numbers. Either way, only time will tell, and you’ll be able to find all the latest information at Geeks of Doom.