My good friend The ODI has managed to confirm the recent Asterix and has confirmed also the identity of Jacob.
As many of you have suspected and speculated, Pellegrino is indeed going to portray the infamous Jacob!!
Also as far as the Astrix clue goes, like all of you suspected, the answer is indeed:
"Young James meets Jacob at his dad's funeral."
As a matter of fact our source went as far to say Sawyer, so it is not another James. Additionally, the scene is a flashback and takes place in a church, so I assume it is an off island scene.