The long-planned and anticipated release of The Avengers combines Marvel film heroes Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as a squad of superheroes under the supervision of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). The culmination of literally 5 summers of anticipation, there is a lot riding on the film being successful.

And honestly, I’m not too sure that Whedon is “the guy”. Sure, as much as we can talk his geek credentials with Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible alongside his comic credentials with Astonishing X-Men and Runaways, there’s nothing about Whedon that screams “director to entrust huge project to”, aside from making fans happy.

Sure, I love his work, but when his biggest attempt at directing so far (Serenity) made only $38 mil, and in some ways was just a TV episode gone big, I’m left to worry. But then again, maybe the appeal of the heroes combined in one film means that even a monkey could direct it to a few hundred mil.

I can’t say I’m as enthused as others about this choice for direction (I’d prefer Jon Favreau), but I’d love to be proven wrong. We’ll see how this goes.

Source: Whedon To Direct Marvel’s The Avengers’ — Deadline.com.