Check out footage of Wasp's appearance in Avengers

A new storyboard animatic from Avengers Assemble has been unveiled online, and it shows just how close mini-heroine Wasp came to being in the movie.

The animatic, created by artist Federico D'Alessandro, is a conceptual series of images that storyboards the arrival of Loki's army in New York.

That in itself is pretty exciting, but the awesome levels go through the roof with a shot of the Avengers assembled - with Janet Van Dyne aka Wasp hovering among them.

Check out the video below…

Director Joss Whedon has talked previously about his attempts to get Wasp - a founding member of the Avengers in the comics - into his film.

However, we didn't realise just how close Wasp came to being a part of the madness until this animatic was released.

It's surely a bittersweet feeling for comic fans who love the movie but would have loved to see Wasp involved, too.

Whedon is currently working on Avengers 2 . No word yet if he's planning on enlisting Wasp this time around…

Avengers: Age Of Ultron opens in 2015.