This isn't shocking news, exactly, given that we're all expecting the full Avengers cast to take the stage at the Marvel panel on Saturday night, but here's some good word for you Whedonites out there anyway. Right at the start of the Visionaries panel in Hall H, Joss Whedon has confirmed that he is indeed directing The Avengers. He started by trying to hedge about-- "That's n-not-n-not an official thing, probably because Marvel can't afford an official press release"-- but eager to please his fans, Whedon finally came out and said it: "I am directing The Avengers."
Pressed for more details Whedon admitted that he's still in the outlining stages of the script, but explained what he loved about the Avengers story: "It's totally counterintuitive. These people should not be in the same room together, let alone on a team, and that to me is the definition of family."
Watch Whedon talking about Avengers at Comic Con below:
UPDATE: An audience member asked Whedon about how he would blend his writing style with the established tone of The Avengers. He started with a joke answer-- "They're all going to sound like me! No problem!"-- but went into a pretty elegant explanation of the skills he'd bring to the project:
The fact is the first job I had outside of television was a script doctor, and what you have to do in that situation is blend in. A lot of the way that I speak and write comes from reading these comics. I think it's very, very easy to fall into the aesthetic of something that you love. Obviously I'm going to bring some of myself to it. I'm an artist who wishes to create something that comes from within, but at the same time, yes they have an established tone, I'm going to be respectful of that. I'm culling things from all these different movies, I have to blend all of that. Ultimately that would result ins something unique anyway. That doesn't seem like a challenge to me at all. When I write Tony Stark or Steve Rogers, they sound like them. Particularly because I already know who's playing them.
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