Lucy Lawless is what you might call a geek-friendly actress. While she got her start on the fantasy series Xena: Warrior Princess, she has followed it with great appearances in genre shows like Battlestar Galactica and Spartacus. Because of these credits, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is certainly something that fans would expect her to eventually become a part of, and now that idea is actually becoming a reality.

TV Guide has picked up the news that Lucy Lawless has signed on for a part in the second season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Unfortunately, just like most Marvel announcements, this one is shrouded in mystery. At this time we have no idea who she is playing, or the number of episodes in which we can expect her to appear. That said, the show is scheduled to have a presentation at San Diego Comic-Con later this week (on Friday, to be precise), and I would honestly be amazed if the entire panel goes by without someone spilling the beans on who Lawless will be playing. Hell, I could even see her showing up as a surprise guest star on the panel.

Those of you who watched the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. know that the series has actually done a pretty good job of enlisting some cool actors to play small roles. Appearances by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, Jaimie Alexander's Sif, and Cobie Smulder's Maria Hill from the Marvel Studios movies were all nice surprises (not to mention Titus Welliver from the Marvel One Shot Item 47), but there were also some cool multi-episode arcs played out by Bill Paxton:



Saffron Burrows:



and Patton Oswalt - who could possibly end up coming back for Season 2 as well:



While many of the stars and filmmakers behind Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are all going to be in San Diego this week, it won't be long until they are back to work filming the second season and building on what was established in the first episodes. The debut of the new episodes is currently set for Tuesday, September 23rd, now airing at 9/8c on ABC.

We can probably assume that Lucy Lawless will not be playing a superhero on the show, and it's possible that she won't even be playing a character from the comics, but that shouldn't deter all of you from guessing the identity of her role! Tell us who you think she'll play in the comments below.