Joss Whedon confirmed to write and direct ‘The Avengers 2′

What looked like a disheartening situation in the making seems to have found itself a happy ending. ‘The Avengers’ is one of the best movies of the summer, and most of the credit goes to writer/director Joss Whedon who served up a very entertaining screenplay with great action sequences to boot. The director was unsure in previous interviews whether he would return for the sequel since he wants to do something original after that (fair enough since his original work is classic), which left the fate of the sequel in shady hands. But fear not, he will be back.

Disney announced at the Walt Disney Investors Conference Call that Joss Whedon will return to write and direct ‘The Avengers 2′, making the prospects of the sequel infinitely brighter again. But not only that, they also revealed that they have the director on contract till 2015 to not only develop that film, but also develop the Avengers-themed Marvel TV series that may air on ABC which was reported a week ago. Here’s what they also said:

Joss Whedon has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015. As part of that deal, Whedon will write and direct Marvel’s The Avengers 2 as well as help develop a new live-action series for Marvel Television at ABC. He will also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe.

Whedon had a hand in polishing the screenplay of ‘Captain America’, so now it seems he will have some hand in the sequel movies that Marvel is going to unleash in the next few years too. The TV show sounds much more interesting now since Whedon’s past records show his strength in TV shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly). We can also now assume that ‘The Avengers 2′ will most likely release in 2015, possibly May to kick off the summer season.

Thoughts?