Toward the end of November, it was getting hard to keep up with the news about Kenneth Branagh's Thor. In a span of ten days, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson, and Tadanobu Asano were all added to the cast and shooting was announced to begin in January. Since then, movies like Avatar and Iron Man 2 have dominated the news world, but now an intriguing name brings it back to the front.

In a very strange way, Variety has announced that Rene Russo will be playing Frigga, wife of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and step mother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth). I say that the news comes in a strange way, as the article that went along with said tweeted announcement is now broken link that has been removed from the website. What this says about the legitimacy of the story is up in the air, but we'll update you as this develops.

While Russo is certainly a fantastic actress, it's a peculiar casting choice. In the comics, Frigga is generally drawn as an older woman, and while Russo is 55, she certainly doesn't look it, and casting her alongside the 72-year-old Hopkins is going to make her look even younger. As it stands, Thor is set to be a CGI-laden film (how else to you get lightning to shoot out of Mjolnir?), but we can hope that they don't go overboard when it comes to adding wrinkles.

UPDATE! It's confirmed. Variety has reposted the original story (without explanation) right here.