Captain America to be cast soon! Yeah, yeah, yeah…

In a wait that is starting to seem like forever, Joe Johnston (THE WOLFMAN, JUMANJI) is giving a loose time frame of when Captain American will be cast.

“We need to cast it soon,” said Johnson. “We have a very short list, but we’re still juggling actors here. I’d say within the next couple of weeks we’ll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope.”

Who will it be? It’s been rumored that everyone from Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Aaron Eckhart, and John Borrowman to name a few. Then there’s the dream list: Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner, Jensen Ackles, Chris Pine, Alexander Skarsgard, Jon Hamm, amongst many other names that have been thrown out (when we asked our readers, Ackles was the #1 choice, followed by Damon and Pine).

The film is still in fairly early pre-production and will not start shooting until June. The director said this on the location, “We’re getting ready to go to the U.K., it looks like.

Here’s what he had to say on the story, “It’s the kind of thing where, while I’m not necessarily a comic-book fan, I think the interesting thing about this guy is that he’s a superhero without any superpowers. Basically, he is the epitome of human perfection. He can’t fly and throw tanks around and see through walls and things like that, but he’s strong and runs fast.”

Johnston continued, “And the interesting thing about this guy is that he starts out as a 98-pound weakling and he becomes this Adonis. How does that affect his arc in the story? How does that affect where he goes and what happens to him and everything? I think that’s the part of the story that was fascinating for me. And, of course, being a Marvel movie, there’s fantastic action scenes in it and all kinds of great stuff. But there’s an interesting story there as well.”

So who will it be? Also, how do you guys feel about a director that isn’t a “comic-book fan”? I’m not terribly bothered by it. I’m just anxious to hear who they cast. Captain America is due in theaters on July 22, 2011.