Avengers 2 arrives May 1, 2015

Just 7 days ago director Joss Whedon, who called the shots on the first movie, was signed on to both write and direct the sequel. 

Today, that sequel was given a release date of May 1st, 2015. That date will see the movie hit cinemas just under three years since the first, but after four other movies from Marvel Studios: Iron Man 3 (May 2013), Thor: The Dark World (November 2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 2014) and, possibly their most ambitious movie yet, Guardians Of The Galaxy (August 2014).

There are rumors that director Edgar Wright's long awaited Ant-Man will also hit cinemas before The Avengers sequel, but that is very likely just fan hope.

The Avengers has made over $1.4billion at the worldwide box office so far (3^rd highest of all time) and is one of the biggest blockbusters we've ever seen, leading to the question: “how do you go bigger?”. Well, according to Joss Whedon, you don’t. 

Back in March, Whedon stated where he thought a sequel should go, regardless of who was calling the shots: "it should be smaller, more personal, more painful" he said. He added that too many sequels – especially with these type of movies – get caught up trying to better than the first by being bigger. He didn’t want that to be the case with a second Avengers film and described their next step as one of loss.

Now that he’s on board, hopefully Whedon will get to realize that vision, but it’s likely to be a long while before we hear much on the as-yet-untitled Avengers sequel; the deal – from which the sequel is included – also consist of an “overseeing” role across all things Marvel Studios until 2015. This includes any of the films as well as the planned live-action TV series. Pre-Avengers, Whedon ran his eyes over the Captain America: The First Avenger script, so his duties on this new deal aren’t all that new.

Dubbed by many as King Of The Geeks, “Phase Two” of The Marvel Cinematic Universe couldn’t be in better hands – or rather, under a more watchful eye.

We all wait in anticipation for Avengers 2, but first up we will have Iron Man 3 – the teaser trailer for which we should see pretty soon.

Words: Mitch Lewis

Follow Mitch on twitter @Mitch_Lewis