A few months ago, geek god Joss Whedon wasn’t sure about getting involved with the follow-up to the massively successful Marvel team up flick from earlier this summer. His stance on ‘The Avengers’ remained the same when Comic-Con rolled around, but today, on the Walt Disney Investors Conference Call, Bob Iger, the chairman and chief executive of The Walt Disney Company, announced that Joss Whedon will write and direct ‘The Avengers 2’.
Previously, the creator of some of the most beloved properties in sci-fi and fantasy like ‘Firefly’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ had this to say about being torn about signing onto the sequel:
“It’s an enormous amount of work telling what is ultimately somebody else’s story, even though I feel like I did get to put myself into it. But at the same time, I have a bunch of ideas, and they all seem really cool.”
Now, Comic Book Resources is reporting that Iger revealed that Whedon has indeed officially signed on and is involved with development. Not only that, but he’ll be attached to the rumored live action television series on ABC that’s set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! And this time, he probably won’t get cancelled prematurely. (We hope.)
This is phenomenal news. Whedon was one of the biggest reasons why ‘The Avengers’ was as big of a success as it was, so I’m not surprised that Disney and Marvel are super stoked to finally have him locked in for the crown jewel of the studio’s Phase Two. No other details are available at the moment, but one could assume that they’d like ‘The Avengers 2’ to be released in 2015, so it’s likely that production will commence in late 2013 or early 2014. As far as the TV show goes, it was only a “a kernel of an idea” last we heard, so maybe we’ll get that in 2014 or 2015. Maybe, instead of a second film in 2015, the show will take the slot. But I’m just speculating here.
Are you excited for Joss Whedon to return to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? Who am I kidding? Of course you are! Feel free to fanboy and fangirl in the comments below.
