Last month, the day after Marvel Studios revealed the first footage from Avengers: Age of Ultron among other things at San Diego Comic-Con, the annual Nerd HQ held its "Conversation with Joss Whedon" via FaceTime as the the writer-director was still recovering from knee surgery in London. The first of his few Marvel-related questions had inquired about how The Avengers sequel will address the Captain America: The Winter Soldier cliffhanger that left Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) on a mission to find Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). "Ultron is the clear present danger, and Bucky is in the wind," said Whedon. "We do mention the fact that [Bucky] is his sort of primary thing, but he's also working with the Avengers too. So, we're not ignoring it, but he definitely has to deal with a mad 8-foot robot. Because that's one of those things where, [if] you put it off, it just gets worse." Speaking of Cap's primary mission, Captain America 3 is set a couple years after The Winter Soldier, and is also set to release the same day as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.



Which indirectly brings us to the next Marvel-related question for Joss Whedon: What would he say to Warner Bros./DC to step up their game? "I don't think I would say that," he said moderately. "I think that would be a little presumptuous of me. I think that both studios have kind of different agendas, different ways of approaching the superhero genre, and the ethos of the thing, and the esthetic. They go very dark and serious and sometimes it works amazingly, and Marvel tends to be a little lighter. Both have movies that I adore, and both have movies that I'm like... (Whedon gives an aggravated facial expression), including bits of my own. I would not want them to do what Marvel does. I like what they do when they get it right. When you get a Heath Ledger [performance], and Batman Begins, and those things that really grip you. That's something nobody else is doing, and I like it. I want them to do what they're doing."



The last Marvel question Joss Whedon was asked was about Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which Marvel Studios had just announced the day before the Nerd HQ panel, and how James Gunn's 2017 sequel will affect what he has going for The Avengers. "I was not aware of what they were going to announce," he admits, "because I sort of stay away from everything else as much as I can while I'm trying desperately to finish [Age of Ultron]. We're two weeks away from finishing and I'm two days away from actually finishing the script as well. So, it's a lot going on with me right now. Kevin [Feige] has a big plan and every now and then, he'll tell me part of it if he thinks it's going to affect what I'm doing or if he thinks what I'm doing is going to affect his. But as much as possible, I try to live in my own bubble. Guardians [of the Galaxy] is very much its own thing. They're not the Guardians of this galaxy; it's a different one. So, I can sort of keep them at arm's length, long enough to do my thing and then I'm sure everything is gonna get mixed together because it's Marvel." Mixed together? Can we add this to the piling evidence that the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy will eventually link up? Sure! What do you think?

Marvel's

stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Cobie Smulders Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, with Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, and James Spader. The film is set for release on May 1, 2015.

Avengers: Age of Ultron