Costa Ronin Joins Agent Carter As Whiplash’s Father Anton Vanko

Marvel’s first television series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was heavily criticized in its first season for not incorporating enough comic book or MCU characters into its proceedings. Things have greatly improved in season two, thankfully, and it looks like Marvel won’t be making the same mistake with their new series, Agent Carter.

Apart from featuring the eponymous Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) herself, who has now appeared in multiple MCU films and on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the series will include Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark, the father of Iron Man, and Stark’s butler Jarvis (James D’Arcy), the man who Tony will base his advanced artificial intelligence sidekick on. Now, we’ve learned that the show will incorporate yet another important person in the Stark family: Anton Vanko.

Vanko isn’t related to the Starks, but his son, Ivan Vanko, grows up to become the villain Whiplash, who was played by Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2. In that film, Ivan Vanko swore revenge on Stark’s family for the deception that led to his father’s banishment after he and Howard Stark built the arc reactor. That reactor, of course, would later be further developed by Tony, who used it to save his own life and power the Iron Man suit.

According to ComicBook.com, the patriarchal Vanko will appear on Agent Carter and will be played by The Americans actor Costa Ronin. With Cooper reprising his role as Howard Stark for several episodes, it seems that the series explore a bit of his relationship with Anton Vanko, and shed some light on how the pair created the arc reactor before their partnership disintegrated and led to Vanko’s deportation to Siberia.

Tell us, are you interested in seeing Costa Ronin play Anton Vanko on Agent Carter? Let us know in the comments section below, and be sure to tune in when Agent Carter debuts on ABC on January 6th, 2015.