Marvel News: Joss Whedon Teases Avengers 2

Could a mortal fate await one of the World's Greatest Heroes? Plus, what's the deal with the Loki no-show?
Director and writer Joss Whedon has today revealed a new selection of hints regarding his screenplay for the upcoming superhero film sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Set after the events of Avengers Assemble, Iron Man 3, Agents of SHIELD Season One, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy (phew!), this new ensemble instalment reunites the cast of the 2012 bestseller along with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and reportedly Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch.

The writer of Avengers Assemble and The Cabin In The Woods clearly wants to deal with his initial teaser of "death, death and death" issued when he was first questioned on the much anticipated follow-up. Here's our round-up of what Whedon has to say on his biggest project yet:

• ON POTENTIAL AVENGERS DEATHS- "I'm always joking about that. Um, maybe? But I'd have to have a really good reason, a really great sequence for [Marvel executives] to go, 'We'll cut off a potential franchise, that's fine!'. They know, as any good studio does, that without some stakes, some real danger, how involved can we get? We don't just rule it out across the board, but neither is the mission statement 'Who can we kill?'. We try to build the story organically and go, 'How hard can we make it on these people?'."
• ON LOKI'S ABSENCE- "Every movie is going to be a different villain. Loki's awesome, and he is awesome in Thor 2. But The Avengers is a different thing. I worked with Tom more than any other actor in Avengers Assemble, because he was the only villain and there were six heroes. And he was as great as anyone I've ever worked with, and I get why people loved the character. But it's an Avengers movie."
• ON THE DIRECTION OF THE SEQUEL- "I want to be clearer about how I engage the audience, and where I take them. I want more control visually, more time to prep it. Not that I didn't dictate every shot- I did. But there's only so much you can do when you're making a summer film when the ball is already rolling as fast as it was when I got in. Why do it again if you can't do better?"

The Avengers: Age of Ultron assembles in cinemas worldwide on May 1st, 2015.