With Joss Whedon’s Firefly reunion panel being one of the most well-received Comic-Con events in recent memory, some of the director’s other works may have been overshadowed for a moment.  It takes quite a bit to drown out The Avengers, so a perfect question for Whedon would be to ask about the status of The Avengers 2 and whether or not he’ll be back for the sequel.  More on that after the jump.

Another visionary director in the person of Neill Blomkamp (District 9) was on hand at Comic-Con today to showcase his current project, Elysium.  While we’ll have more on the Matt Damon-starrer in a bit, Blomkamp did comment on his upcoming projects, including a sequel to District 9.  Hit the jump to read more about what’s next from Whedon and Blomkamp and be sure to stay up to date with our continuing Comic-Con coverage here.

On the seventh day, Joss Whedon created The Avengers.  Marvel has released a new infographic movie timeline that highlights specific super-heroic instances in time and places them in the context of The Avengers and the individual movies that built up to it.  While The Avengers franchise no doubt revolves around Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, the new infographic has made him into a pseudo-Christ figure by demarcating the timeline with BIM (“Before Iron Man”) and AIM (“After Iron Man”).  While it’s true that Iron Man had more movies than the rest of The Avengers (excluding 2003′s Hulk, which the timeline wisely forgets), I’d much rather see the scenes relative to one Special Agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) or even the beloved Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).  Hit the jump to check it out.

I’m writing you this afternoon less than an hour removed from my first trip to the little slice of Americana that is a Bass Pro Shop. For those unfamiliar with the chain, imagine a store with Wal-Mart-esque square footage that devotes itself entirely to all things outdoor. While I’ll admit to being a little out of my element (okay, way out of my element), even an outdoor novice like myself can relish the opportunity to have their picture taken with a taxidermic grizzly bear. For those of you waiting for me to somehow make a connection between my Bass Pro experience and this week’s “Top 5″, this ellipsis is about as close as you’re going to get…

…In this week’s installment you’ll find the much-anticipated first trailer from writer/director Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, the first poster for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace 3D, some new set photos from Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Rises, and interviews for both The Thing and Craig Brewer’s Footloose. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

The first trailer for writer/director Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is now available online. Quick impression: I really like what I see. The plot is simple and to the point: Loki wants to destroy the Earth, and Nick Fury puts a team of superheroes together to stop him. While this may be a “team”, the star of the trailer (and perhaps the movie; we’ll see) is Robert Downey Jr. He gets both the laugh lines and the bad-ass lines. I don’t think anyone else talks except for Loki, Nick Fury, and Captain America. The only thing that’s awful is the music that plays in the second half of the trailer, but that’s no fault of the movie.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer. The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, and Cobie Smulders. The Avengers opens in 3D on May 4th, 2012.

In last week’s “Top 5″, I painfully admitted to not having seen either Moneyball or 50/50. Moreover, I put my credentials as “mildly credible film blogger” up as collateral in the case that I hadn’t checked both out by this week. Sadly, I’ll have to forfeit my title as I’ve only managed to catch 50/50 so far. On the bright side, I thought that film was great and is definitely one of my favorites of the year thus far. As for Moneyball, well there’s always this week.

In spite of my lack of mild credibility, I hope you’ll still choose to check out this week’s “Top 5″ where you’ll find new hi-res images from The Avengers, the return of Arrested Development, our In Time set visit coverage, and interviews for George Clooney’s political drama The Ides of March and Shawn Levy’s robot boxing extravaganza Real Steel. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

While it’s never really startling news to hear actors sing the praises of movie scripts they’re set to star in, most movies aren’t the huge event that Joss Whedon’s The Avengers almost promises to be.  With that in mind, in a recent interview at the Sundance Film Festival Thor star Chris Hemsworth didn’t hesitate to pump up an early draft of The Avengers script saying:

“I saw a very early draft and, yeah, it’s incredible.  Look, everything about the story in the comic books is huge. You have these huge, big superheroes and these huge, big egos kind of crammed into one small space.”

To hear more of what Hemsworth had to say about both The Avengers and a potential Jeremy Renner/Hawkeye Thor cameo, hit the jump.  Thor hits theaters on May 6th while The Avengers is currently slated for release almost one year later on May 4th, 2012.

Captain America might be The First Avenger, but the first Avenger to hit screens next summer is Thor and director Kenneth Branagh brought several of his stars, and a nice chunk of footage no one had seen yet, to present during the Marvel panel Saturday evening in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con. The film, about a Norse God banished to Earth after seemingly betraying his people, will hit theaters in May 2011 and this was the first time fans got to see footage from the superhero film.

What was shown? What did cast members like Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg have to say about Thor? Hit the jump and find out.

Two years ago “Iron Man” came to Comic-Con and left as the undisputed winner. While the competition was much greater this time around, most are saying that “Iron Man 2″ either won the weekend or was in the top three. Not bad when you’re up against James Cameron and dozens of other big budget Hollywood films.

Anyway, after the cast of “Iron Man 2″ kicked everyone’s ass in Hall H, they answered a lot of press questions. Thankfully, I got to participate in a small roundtable interview with Robert Downey Jr. and after the jump you can either read or listen to what he said about playing Tony Stark again and what it was like to come back to Comic-Con. It’s a great interview so check it out:

When you have an opportunity to sit down with Kevin Feige – the President of Production of Marvel Studios – you listen up because he’s the one with the most important news about Marvel’s upcoming films.  So during this afternoon’s roundtable interview at Comic-Con for “Iron Man 2″, we listened up. When it was my turn to ask a question, I went for what many of us have been wondering: which Marvel superheroes will be in the upcoming “Avengers” movie?! You know you want to find out so hit the jump: