It’s official: Dominic Cooper will play Howard Stark in the upcoming ‘Captain America‘ film. Although rumors have been circulating about Cooper’s involvement since May, Marvel did not send the official press release until yesterday. It’s kind of like how you know your girlfriend is going to leave you for that guy at the gym, but she hasn’t yet packed up her stuff.

As I wrote in May, Howard Stark is a Howard Hughes-esq inventor and the founder of Stark Industries, the company later inherited by his son Tony (a.k.a. Iron Man). Assuming no one has changed the Wikipedia page from which I grabbed it, that information should still be accurate. (Collider)

First Showing is reporting that Dominic Cooper has has been brought on to play Howard Stark, the father of Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) in the upcoming film, Captain America: The First Avenger. Cooper will play a much younger version of the character than was briefly seen in Iron Man 1 and 2.

According to my vast knowledge base of comic related information (a.k.a. wikipedia), Howard Stark is a millionaire inventor and the founder of Stark Industries, a weapons company that came to prominence during World War II. Like his son Tony, Howard is a brilliant but flawed character who battles with alcoholism.

The character of Howard Stark is supposedly based on eccentric aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. I’m assuming that Cooper has already begun hording jars of his own precious urine in order to get into character.