Good lord, Marvel Studios know how to build hype! Today at San Diego Comic Con, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr introduced the cast of The Avengers to six thousand screaming nerds. By this stage the addition of Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo to the cast as Hawkeye and The Hulk is old news, but it's still incredibly awesome to hear it from the mouth of Iron Man himself. I don't even know who Hawkeye is and I'm excited!Even better, the film is being written and directed by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly - simply put, the man is a geek god. Check out the footage of the announcement below (good grief Downey is suave. Who else could say that about Inception and get applause?)
Of course the movie could still be awful. I'm as big a Whedon fan as they come, but he's never directed a film even half as ambitious as this one, and it's not hard to imagine his brilliance being stiffled by the demands of an enormous budget, interfering studio heads and the ego's of half a dozen A-list stars. Plus as cool as the concept of a superhero ensemble film is, I'm still not entirely convinced it can work outside the pages of a comic book. Iron Man 2 suffered from way too many characters and sub-plots, so the addition of three major superheroes isn't exactly going to simplify things.
Still, even if the movie sucks, this announcement was pretty damn sweet. Although I feel kind of sorry for former Hulk Edward Norton, who I can imagine sitting alone at a computer watching this footage and quietly sobbing.
The Avengers is schedueled for release on May 4th 2012.
From left to right, the cast and crew of The Avengers: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Clark Gregg (SHIELD Agent Coulson), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), Samuel L. Jackson (SHIELD Agent Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Writer/Director Joss Whedon, Producer/Marvel Studios’ President Kevin FeigeSources: /Film, UGO
