Despite being deep in pre-production on The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon has found the time to pop over to France for the Paris premiere of Much Ado About Nothing, but of course much of the press focus was on the upcoming Avengers sequel. Speaking to AlloCine (via CBM), Whedon discussed whether the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier will impact Age of Ultron, as well as revealing that The Godfather Part II is his “guiding star” for the follow-up to the 2012 mega-blockbuster.
“The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier will definitely affect the world of Avengers 2. But at the end of the day, I have to make my movie assuming that people will only have seen the first one, or possibly not even seen the first one. I can’t assume that everybody went to see Thor: The Dark World, Captain America, and Iron Man 3 in-between. I have to go from one movie to the next and be true to what’s happened [in the previous movies], but not be slavish to it… The model I’m always trying to build from, or my guiding star, is The Godfather Part II where a ton has happened in-between and it’s a very different movie [from The Godfather], but you don’t need any information. It’s there in the film about what’s happened since, what’s different, and why is this a different film; why is it a different kind of structure, and why is it darker. It’s all there, you’re in the vernacular of the first movie and you’re just ready to pick up in this new place, and hopefully that’s what will happen with my movie. Obviously I’m talking about one of the greatest films ever made… I hope mine will be good, but that is my guiding star.”
The Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st 2015, with Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (The Incredible Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) joined by Marvel newcomers Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Scarlet Witch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2) as Quicksilver, Thomas Kretschmann (Dracula) as Baron Strucker, and James Spader (The Blacklist) as Ultron.
Originally published January 24, 2014. Updated December 13, 2019.
