It hasn’t exactly been a well kept secret, but Marvel have officially announced, via TV Guide , that a new Avengers animated series, Avengers Assemble, is coming. This is obviously the nail in the coffin to the current Avengers series, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, which was already presumed to be ending after its current second season.

Marvel’s Jeph Loeb tells TV Guide, “The Avengers movie has been the ambassador to the world for the Marvel Universe so we want a show that has the feel and the tone and the incredible adventures like that movie. So the next project that we're working on — and this is down in our lab, top secret, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents protecting us at all costs — is Avengers Assemble, which will be a brand new and really extraordinary looking animated series dealing with the Avengers in that same world.”Asked how Avengers Assemble will differ from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Loeb said, “We're still very early on in the process and we don't give away too much. It's safe to say that we're looking at a show that more closely echoes the tone and the feel of the movie.”Asked if Avengers Assemble might skew older, Loeb replies, "No, but it will certainly have that kind of gigantic action and interacting among the characters and their voices that the movie has."The art released from Avengers Assemble shows the lineup is the exact same as the movie – Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye – with the notable addition of the Falcon.

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Joe Quesada tells TV Guide, “Falcon is going to be the eyes of the viewer. He's a new member of the Avengers so he's walking through our stories wide-eyed and with wonder and amazed to be a part of it. He's a little younger than the rest of the cast and a little greener, so he adds an interesting dimension to the team that we think will play really well with the audience.”With Loeb and Quesada stressing how Avengers Assemble is meant to more closely match the Marvel movies, Falcon’s inclusion will only fuel the belief that the character will be added to future Marvel films – probably in Captain America 2, which has already been speculated about Quesada and Loeb also discuss their other upcoming series, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. , with Loeb saying, “we started talking about it and we thought what's more fun than one Hulk? And that would actually be five Hulks! We're taking characters that already exist in the Marvel Universe — because it's very important to us that it all begins with [the comic-book] publishing. That cast is Hulk; the Red Hulk; Skaar, who's the teenage barbarian Hulk, She Hulk — who's actually been a character in the Marvel Universe for 30 years; and a relatively new character, A-Bomb. He's more of a Blue Hulk. And together they are Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.”

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As for what S.M.A.S.H. stands for, Loeb says, “Joe had that answer the first day: They're Hulks, it can stand for anything they want it to.”Ultimate Spider-Man has just been renewed for a second season, and while there has been some criticism of that series from older fans, Quesada tells TV Guide, “We loved the response from our hardcore Marvel fans. They really embraced the show and they got the word out in so many ways. It's been pretty overwhelming. We knew we were creating a really special show, just how special we weren't sure. At the end of the day it's a pretty democratic system how these things get renewed: You either have the ratings or you don't. And we've been really, really thankful and blessed that we've had incredible ratings.”Loeb says the plan with Ultimate Spider-Man is to be relevant to the current Marvel movies, including The Amazing Spider-Man (despite that being produced by Sony, not Marvel). "There will be more stories that feature those Avengers characters — Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, they'll all be coming back in Season 2. But even more exciting to us is that we're going to be able to explore the villain from this summer's Amazing Spider-Man [movie]. Curt Connors has been playing a role throughout all of Season 1, and finally in Season 2, longtime Spidey fans and Marvel fans will get to see his transformation into the Lizard."Neither Avengers Assemble or Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. are officially set for a specific network yet, though when TV Guide asked Loeb about Disney XD seeming like the logical destination, he replied, “I think the best answer for that would be, ‘Wouldn't that be fantastic?’”