Joss Whedon is a filmmaker that likes to talk and right now everyone wants to talk with him. Hell, during Comic Con people didn't have to wait until the Marvel panel for secrets to be revealed, all they had to do was catch up with the Buffy creator. Over that weekend, Whedon revealed that not only will he be directing The Avengers, but that Mark Ruffalo would be the new Hulk, Jeremy Renner would be Hawkeye and that Ant-Man won't make an appearance. But with a project as big as Marvel's superhero team-up, there's bound to be a lot of questions to be asked, and Whedon is more than happy to answer them all.
SFX caught up with the director who was willing to spill plenty on the project, the most important being that Marvel President Kevin Feige is letting it be his project. Said Whedon, "There are definitely stipulations and restrictions, but Kevin Feige is very active as a producer and worked with me a lot on the story, but they are absolutely honouring the fact that this is my film." The director believes that one of the biggest things supporting him in making the film character driven is the casting of Robert Downey Jr., who proved that fans need to be invested in not only the story and the action, but the interpersonal relationships as well.
Continuing, Whedon also revealed that Ruffalo was his personal choice to play Bruce Banner/Hulk. According to him, it isn't about saying "one iconic line and [striking] a pose," rather, it's about the humanity in the character, which he believes Ruffalo can bring. "He’s so human. He was my first choice to play the part, and the fact he is playing the part is nuts! They went to great lengths to make that happen and they understood exactly why he was right for the part."
While I still have my questions about the choice of Ruffalo, I am still confident about Whedon. His directing experience isn't exactly vast - he has exactly one feature credit - but there isn't another filmmaker out there with a more intimate knowledge of the characters. He is the kind of person that would be just as outraged by a bad Avengers movie as the most dedicated fanboy. I'm still waiting for him to make a mistake that will make me think otherwise.
