Originally published May 6, 2013. Updated December 13, 2019.
Now that Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is officially underway, we’re starting to hear bits and pieces about the culmination of this second round of movies, referring of course to Joss Whedon’s eagerly-anticipated superhero sequel The Avengers 2. Just last week, we heard that Whedon plans to introduce (at least) two new characters, with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver confirmed as joining the roster of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and now Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige has taken the opportunity to explain how Robert Downey Jr.’s latest solo adventure gives us a flavour of what to expect from The Avengers 2:
“Well Joss has said it on the record in the past, it’s not about going bigger,” Feige told Collider during one of his many Iron Man 3 promotional interviews. “It’s not about, ‘And this time there will be five more explosions in this section!’ I mean certainly you want to up the ante, you want to exceed people’s expectations, but I think there are various ways of doing that and Iron Man 3 is a very, very good test for us of doing exactly that. The first movie we make after The Avengers has our hero spending more time out of the suit than any of the other movies; that seems potentially counterintuitive to some people, but that was exactly why we did it. We didn’t want to say, ‘Oh now it has to be bigger and he fights 100 people in armored suits.’ Yeah the action sequences are big, there’s more action in Iron Man 3 than in the other two movies, but at the same time it’s a much deeper and a more exploratory character journey on the heels of our biggest spectacle with The Avengers.”
He then went on to discuss the emphasis on character interactions in Joss Whedon’s script, which he is currently writing: “We’ve been consistent in talking about this leading up to The Avengers: what is most interesting to us and why we hired Joss Whedon in the first place is the interaction between the characters. That’s more fun to us than the massive action scenes that are gonna have to come with it that we’re gonna have to figure out, and we’re gonna have to be clever and raise the bar, but already the scenes that Joss has of just the characters sitting around and interacting are hilarious and are awesome and are moving and a notch or two above the first movie, and to me that’s where you wanna top yourself.”
Feige also revealed that it’s likely The Avengers 2 will adopt Marvel’s growing preference for adding a subtitle to its sequels: “I would say that if you look at the trend of our upcoming movies, Iron Man 3 is the only one that has a number. I like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi instead of Star Wars 2, Star Wars 3.” [He’s right by the way, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are better than Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith].
And finally, speaking to Entertainment Weekly (via ComicBookMovie), Feige went on to touch upon Marvel’s Phase Three plans, dismissing the rumour that The Avengers 2 will set up a Planet Hulk adaptation leading to World War Hulk for The Avengers 3: “There’s no script in the works or anything, but we are talking about it. All the Hulk energy right now is on Avengers 2, but Mark Ruffalo is signed up [for more films]. What we’re excited about exploring and expanding is Mark – and Bruce Banner is not in Planet Hulk at all. The fun of Hulk is his interaction with humans.”
The Avengers 2 is currently scheduled for release on May 1st 2015, with the likes of Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) all expected to reprise their roles and Robert Downey Jr. said to be in negotiations with Marvel about a return as Tony Stark.
