Joss Whedon Signs Deal to Develop 'Avengers 2' and Marvel TV Series

I'm really amped about this announcement.

I'd love to see a Hulk movie with Ruffalo as Banner on that list.

This seems to be good news. The sequel isn't a surprise, given how well the first Avengers did. But now that Whedon's gotten to know the characters better he can put a bit more of his own stamp on them as he develops the story lines. One possible concern is, if this is to be a long-term move, it would be important to keep the cast together. If they had to replace Robert Downey Jr. anytime soon, for example, it could be a problem.

As for the series, that, too, will be interesting.

Good news all the way around. The best movie of the year until the Dark Knight Rises came out...now I can't decide.

I liked The Avengers a whole lot more than I liked Dark Knight Rises. Heck, I even liked it more than Dark Knight Returns. The Avengers IMO is the single best superhero movie ever made. It even surprasses Superman 1 and 2 for me.

We may be in the minority, but I agree; it's even a bit better than the first Iron Man.

I agree 100%

what what what?

I don't know if you can remember or are old enough, but Superman 1 and 2 were magical. Them, Jaws, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones were movie magic. They truly transported you into a different time and place. As good as any of these modern day comic book movies have been, and I agree they are awesome. They will just not compare to Superman 1 or 2. It is your opinion though so all the power to you.

Jaws, starwars, Indiana Jones were magical superman I could not stand. I'm looking forward to the reboot of superman.

I started collecting comics when I was 10, Superman 1 came out when I was 14...I was less than impressed. I still didn't believe a man could fly
It's so cool that the technology has caught up to put these characters on screen and make it realistic. I don't collect comics anymore but I've got a soft spot for all things superhero-related.
I'm still waiting on them to do the Hulk correctly (ie. actually focus on the Hulk and give him more screen time than Banner)
Agree with the others, Avengers is the best superhero movie yet...very much looking forward to whatever Whedon and Marvel produce next

There has been a lot of Superhero movies made, but I am not sure I want to argue the point with you.

Very, very happy about this.

Avengers was the best superhero movie of all time.

The Advengers was cute of a film for me, it had it's laugh's and chuckles but I wouldn't say it was the best super hero movies ever.I like my super heroes, dark and gritty ..On that note I hope the TV series on the Disney channel (aka )ABC don't water down anymore the franchise it can be trouble.

DJoel

Have to agree. Don't wish to tick-off its fans...I enjoyed AVENGERS. I even have the 3D version pre-ordered. It was witty and very entertaining. But DKR had much more weight and substance to it. It's a movie that I've had numerous discussions with other about...ragarding plot, tonality, politics, the ending, etc. Whereas, with AVENGERS, it's more along the lines of "Why won't they ever show Thor wearing his helmet?" etc. etc.,

For what it was trying to be the Avengers was nearly perfect. Every other superhero film has been very uneven for me. Got their good points but something always spoils the awe and wonder these types of films should inspire. Watching The Avengers I suddenly knew why I read comics when I was twelve. And that was a good feeling.

I think as for robert downey jr, I wouldn't be suprised if his end comes in Ironman 3. But you never know.

As for Marvel comics, and movie I like them a lot. They are something that brings my whole family together(with the exception of my daughter but even she will sit down on movie night). But when I came out of the theate after Avengers I first in awe thinking it was the greatest movie., but then I sat down and thought about it and there were some cheesyness to it and a lot of stuff that seemed be left, more or so left me with questions. Don't take that the wrong way I still love and enjoy them, will be at openning night for the rest if I can. I just wish we had some more Xman movies, or get past the film rights to spider man and xmen(wolverine) to put them in the Avengers.

For me TDK > Avengers > TASpiderman > TDKR.

Liked em all, but it they absolutely needed to be put in a rating system on enjoyability

Back on topic, great on Josh Whedon. He's got some class A artistic talent and it's nice seeing him make it to the majors finally. He really understand characters and motivations. Buffy was awesome when I was a kid, and Firefly was such a great sleeper science fiction show. Also wrote the screenplay to both Toy Story and Titan A.E.

I am in my 40's, so I grew up with all those films. And yes, they were magical to me when I was watching them as a kid. Star Wars (despite the prequels) is still my favorite movie franchise. However when it comes to superheroes, there are certain elements that are very difficult to get right. First of all, there has to be an epic sense of grandeur to them. Superheroes are the modern day analogue to the Gods and Heroes of myth and legend, and their adventures should be appropriately epic. I feel that few superhero movies get this most important of aspects correct. The first two Superman movies were the one's that came the closest for me up to this point, but IMO The Avengers absolutely nailed it.
Also, and almost as importantly, Superhero movies need a level of technology sufficient to keep up with the imaginative scribblings of the artists who conceive these epic adventures. It was only recently that most superhero franchises could even be done justice in the SFX department. The Avengers showed that there is no longer any technical barriers to fully embracing the genre. Lets face it, as cool as Superman II was, we all know that there were a LOT of places in that movie where the sfx simply fell short. That movie was too ambitious for the time it was made. I'm certainly glad that didn't stop the producers from making it, as the film was still incredible with their limited capabilities, but attempting to compare what they did (technically) back then with even the most pedestrian efforts today is laughable. After watching the Avengers (and to a lesser degree, Green Lantern) I now feel that any superhero franchise could be accurately reproduced on the silver screen, given sufficient budget and talented sfx artists to work on it.

Slightly off topic for the moment, but it's funny to me that while watching a broadcast of X2: Xmen United yesterday, I was thinking to myself how I used to regard those movies as the best of the superhero movies done up to that point. Frankly, I don't even count Superman I and II anymore than I count the Star Wars original trilogy as they are in a class all their own for a number or reasons that I won't get into on this thread. They're kind of like the Babe Ruth of movies and have their deserved place in history. Anyway, how the production of the superhero movies has grown over the years (since X-men) is really fascinating to me and only for the better IMO. They really seem to be getting to the core of these concepts and characters, beyond just the visual, and it's making for really strong movies. And back on topic, it seems to me that a guy like Wheddon is really a fan and takes it seriously. Therefore, I'm very much looking forward to seeing his work in the coming years.

As some of you probably know, I have been a Whedon-head since his Buffy days. Not surprisingly, then, I loved The Avengers. Nevertheless, to my mind, The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight are, respectively, the best and second best costumed comic book crusader movies ever made. I place Iron Man next and The Avengers next after that. Batman Begins belongs on the All Time Best list, too. CAVEAT: rankings like this are so arbitrary, I wonder why I or anyone else ever attempts them.

BECAUSE it's fun...

Information about the cast and the character descriptions for the S.H.I.E.L.D pilot have been available for a while now, quite frankly I'm very underwhelmed, this show is more of a Dollhouse (which I absolutely hated) and not genius Whedon material like Buffy, Angel and Firefly.
Of course if this show turns out to be awesome anyway I'll gladly eat my hat.

I really liked Dollhouse and was hoping that it would get a third season. Buffy and Firefly were even better, it seems to me. I think that everything Whedon has done was terrific. It's just that some of it was more terrific than the rest.

+1. 'Dollhouse' was incredibly underrated, IMO. Between those who saw it as not-so-subtly misogynistic or those who saw it as intellectually shallow, it was unfairly characterized from the get-go as something it was not. What it was, was a crackling good sci-fi yarn about the danger of mind control caused by a dangerous technology run amok, leavened with Whedon's typical rapid-fire banter and rich characterizations. It got better and better as it went along and the premature ending gave tantalizing hints at thrills to come and an unsettling glimpse of a dystopian future.

It wasn't 'Firefly' (what is?), but to me it was one of the most ambitious efforts at serialized sci-fi on television in recent years. Certainly worth a shiny-disk rent or purchase if you've never seen it and consider yourself a fan of good science fiction.

Tried Dollhouse, but the premise was too uninspiring for me to stick with it.
I was bored stiff.

Well said! Your summary makes me miss Dollhouse more than ever.

You have a lot of company, of course. I am not sure I would have stuck with Dollhouse long enough to get in the swing of things and fall in love with it had I not been a Whedon-head already. Of course the presence of the luscious Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker in the cast didn't hurt either;

Hard to argue with that.

Layers of complexity were added as it went on; you might want to re-visit it. In retrospect, I'm sure Joss sees some things he could have done differently in the beginning to get the plotline off to a faster pace or maybe set a different tone. But then, that was the networks "contribution" to 'Firefly' and we saw how well that worked out.

http://screenrant.com/shield-tv-show-premiere-date-nick-fury/

‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ TV Show Aims for Fall 2013 Debut; SLJ Talks Nick Fury Appearance

5 hours ago by Sandy Schaefer

Post-The Avengers Joss Whedon is ready to return to the small screen, where he earned his geek street cred by creating such cult TV series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. However, he’ll still be operating within the parameters of the Marvel Universe, with his new show: a spinoff centered around the (not-so) secret government organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is scheduled to commence filming as soon as next month (January 2013, that is), with Whedon directing the pilot episode. As speculated before, the television program is indeed being lined up to begin airing on ABC by the 2013 Fall TV season. But will S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current boss Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) appear in any significant capacity?


PREVIEWSworld caught up recently with Jeph Loeb, the decorated comic book writer (whose credits include famous titles like “Spider-Man: Blue” and “Batman: The Long Halloween”) and Marvel Head of Television. He offered the following, with regard to S.H.I.E.L.D.:


Well…we have a “little” pilot for television that you might have heard about called Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. co-written, directed, and Executive Produced by none other than Joss Whedon! Working with Joss, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jeffrey Bell on the show is a blast! And bringing in Clark Gregg to play Agent Phil Coulson — the best! Hopefully we will be on in the Fall of 2013 on ABC!

Bell, for those unaware, was a writer and co-executive producer on Angel, Alias and The Protecter; meanwhile, Jed Whedon and Tancharoen (Joss’ brother and sister-in-law) were collaborators on the Web sensation Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and not-so-successful Dollhouse TV series. S.H.I.E.L.D. is expected to bear a stronger resemblance in tone and style to both The Avengers and Whedon’s more-renowned shows; less the comparatively grave conspiracy-thriller atmosphere of Dollhouse, that is.

As for SLJ’s involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D., here is what the actor told MTV:


“I don’t know. I keep hearing about it, and I haven’t talked to Joss about it. But in my mind, I would tend to think that he would, if nothing else, be like Charlie in ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ At least be the voice!”

Jackson, of course, returns to work in the Marvel Movie Universe next March with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which he anticipates will explore the Fury character’s backstory (to some degree). Thus, availability shouldn’t be too much of an issue, with respect to the task of fitting Jackson into the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot; at the least, that could help bridge the gap between the MMU and Whedon’s television creation.

Whedon’s S.H.I.E.LD. TV show won’t be drawing heavily from the Marvel comics; rather, it’s shaping up to be the product of its showrunners’ collective imagination, with the addition of MMU characters like Agent Coulson (whose involvement suggests the series takes place in the pre-Avengers timeline of events). The main characters on the show include:
•Agent Grand Ward (Brett Dalton)
•Agent Althea Rice (Ming-na Wen)
•Agent Leo Fitz & Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge and Ian De Caestecker)

Similarly, Whedon has said that S.H.I.E.L.D. “needs to be its own thing” and unfold in a world that feels adjacent to the MMU. Nonetheless, that doesn’t remove the chance of an occasional appearance from people like Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill or Jackson as Fury. Maybe the latter could even use his distinctive vocals to provide old-fashioned serial-adventure style voiceover narration introduction for the opening of each episode (a la Legend of Korra)?

… Okay, probably not, but still…

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Screen Rant will continue to keep you posted on all S.H.I.E.L.D. developments.