The twin brother-sister superheroes Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been likely contenders to join The Avengers 2 since April when Joss Whedon teased, “I’ve got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They’re in the movie.”  Kevin Feige followed that even though the characters fall into a legal grey area (The characters are mutants, Magneto is their father, and Fox could have possession since they own X-Men), they would be available.  Today, Whedon has confirmed that the characters will be in The Avengers 2.

Hit the jump for more including what Whedon had to say about bringing Iron Man into The Avengers 2.

Earlier this week, we got our first look at the highly-anticipated new series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  The new series takes place after The Avengers, and has Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) leading a new team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives against supernatural forces.  Today, seven more seconds of precious footage have been released, and Coulson announces “Welcome to Level 7″.  Some may wonder, “What is Level 7″?  I wonder if these incredibly brief snippets of footage will be a consistent thing throughout the summer.  If so, that’s incredibly obnoxious.  The people who would watch seven seconds of footage are already going to see the show.  Provide real trailers or keep the show under wraps (I suspect the next major look at the show will come during Comic-Con).

Hit the jump to watch seven seconds of footage because you’re already going to see the show.  The series also stars also stars Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Chloe Bennet.  Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Tuesdays this fall on ABC. [Update: ABC has released a full 3-minute trailer for the series, which is now included after the jump.]

When you get to talk to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, you never have enough time.  After all, he knows everything that’s going on behind-the-scenes at the studio, including which projects are getting ready to be announced.   So when I recently landed an exclusive phone interview with him for Iron Man 3, I tried to use the time to find out about a million different things.

During the wide ranging conversation, we talked about how long he’ll be staying at Marvel, how the studio goes about choosing directors, whether The Avengers sequel be called The Avengers 2 or if it will have a subtitle, whether they have considered casting Dwayne Johnson in a Marvel movie, the status of the Doctor Strange movie, if anyone is currently working on a Falcon or War Machine spinoff movie, whether they have cast Thanos yet, if they be at Comic-Con, D23, or both, and so much more.  If you’re a Marvel fan I promise you’ll enjoy reading this interview.

There’s no such thing as too much Marvel news, right?  With Iron Man 3 hitting theaters this weekend, a bevy of details regarding Marvel’s upcoming films have been making their way online.  While it’s exciting to look ahead to Marvel’s Phase Two slate post-Iron Man 3, all roads lead to one of the most anticipated sequels in recent memory: The Avengers 2.

Steve recently spoke with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and during their extended conversation Feige talked quite a bit about how Iron Man 3 gives audiences an idea of what to expect from The Avengers 2.  He also talked about writer/director Joss Whedon’s script for the follow-up (which he describes as hilarious, awesome, and moving) and whether or not the film will have a subtitle.  Hit the jump to read on.

The wait is almost over for Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, which debuts in the States on Friday, May 3rd.  However, if you’re looking ahead to the rest of Marvel’s Phase Two slate of films, we’ve got a few nibbles of information to pique your interest.  Since there’s currently no Iron Man 4 on Marvel’s lineup, it’s looking like Robert Downey Jr.’s next appearance as the armored Avenger will be in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers 2.  But who else will be joining him?

Hit the jump for more on Iron Man 3 from Downey Jr., Black, Gwyneth Paltrow and Marvel’s Kevin Feige, along with updates on The Avengers 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Spoilers ahead.

Marvel: Phase Two hasn’t even started to hit theaters, but sometimes you just want to rush to desert.  While walking the red carpet at the Iron Man 3 premiere, writer-director Joss Whedon was asked a couple questions regarding The Avengers 2.  First up, since it sounds like Robert Downey Jr. is considering retirement from the Marvel Universe, some may be wondering if we’ll see Iron Man flying around in Whedon’s film.  Whedon responded, “I am not the guy who has to worry about him being replaced. He is Iron Man at this point. When I heard that he was cast I knew that something had just changed, and I usually don’t know stuff like that.”  It sounds fairly certain that Downey is on board for The Avengers 2, but beyond that, Whedon doesn’t know if the actor will continue with the series.

Hit the jump for more including what Whedon had to say about Thanos’ presence in Phase Two.

The U.S. premiere of Iron Man 3 was held last night in Los Angeles, and pretty much everyone from the Marvel Cinematic Universe walked the red carpet.  Though the various actors, actresses, directors, and producers didn’t exactly have time for lengthy interviews while making their way into the theater, a couple of them did drop some interesting tidbits about some upcoming Marvel films.  Gwyneth Paltrow, for one, seems to think that there isn’t going to be an Iron Man 4, and Joss Whedon provided a few more updates on The Avengers 2, even hinting at two new characters he says are in the film.  Hit the jump to read on.

While The Avengers 2 is still very much in the pre-production stage and we haven’t heard much movement recently on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series, everyone will have their Joss Whedon fix very soon.  The UK trailer for his new movie, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, was just released, showing a bit more of the film than the first trailer.  Much Ado tells the story of two stubborn individuals, Beatrice and Benedick, and their haphazard journey to finding love with each other that involves a ridiculous amount of deception and wit.  This one gives glimpses into the interwoven drama with jabs of comedy Whedon is more known for, and I for one am very excited to see him take on an updated but understated version of this classic.  I like that he’s kept the original text, but is playing with the tone and creating a new feel for it.

The cast includes many of Whedon’s mainstays, such as Amy Adams, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg, Sean Maher, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Tom Lenk, Reed Diamond, and Ashley Johnson.  I love seeing Whedon bring back his beloved roster of actors, and I have no doubt that the combination of the cast he’s chosen and his distinctive style of filmmaking and directing will provide something fun and entertaining.  The film is set for a June 7th release.  Hit the jump for the trailer.

While Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks off in earnest next month with the release of Iron Man 3, fans are understandably clamoring for information regarding the next team-up film The Avengers 2.  We still have four Marvel movies to go through before we see the Avengers sequel—in addition to Iron Man 3 there’s Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy—but writer/director Joss Whedon is already quite deep in development on The Avengers 2.  The filmmaker revealed in January that his first draft of the script should be done “in a couple of months,” and a few weeks ago we learned that filming is slated to take place in the U.K. in early 2014.

Now Whedon has offered a bit of an update on the superhero sequel, revealing that he already had an idea of the plot of The Avengers 2 before he had figured out The Avengers and confirming that production will likely begin in February.  He also talked a bit about being privy to all of the Marvel goodness that’s yet to come.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Joss Whedon brought his version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy Much Ado about Nothing to WonderCon in a special presentation.  Much of the cast of the impromptu production joined Whedon on stage in order to screen the recently-released trailer and two exclusive clips from the film.  The panel also shared behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how Whedon recruited them for the film, the experience of contemporizing Shakespeare and just how many of them were drunk during filming (off-screen…of course).

Much Ado about Nothing stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Ashley Johnson, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher and Nathan Fillion and opens in limited release on June 7th.  Hit the jump for our panel recap.

“Coulson Lives”.  Clark Gregg, who has been doing terrific work throughout his career, finally found a devoted fan following for his beloved performance as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson.  A minor character who still managed to steal scenes with only a few lines, Coulson really got to stand out in The Avengers, and his death left fans reeling.  Then a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series was announced, and it turned out Coulson wasn’t quite so dead after all.  Fans rejoiced, and while a pilot for the show has been filmed, details are still scarce.  Now that Coulson is back in the world of the living, Gregg spoke with Steve at WonderCon about joining the TV series, how it will explain Coulson’s return, working with a smaller budget, and if Coulson will come back to the movies.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

When the Veronica Mars movie reached its $2 million fundraising goal on Kickstarter in just 10 hours, devoted fans began to imagine what other cancelled shows could seize this financing opportunity.  The first series that came up, repeatedly and emphatically: Firefly.  After all, no one can mobilize his core fanbase like Firefly creator Joss Whedon.  And Whedon admits that his first reaction to the unqualified success was “unfettered joy” because he feels like this is “a real game-changer.”

But before you get your hopes up, Whedon went on to explain why this will not lead to another Firefly movie anytime soon.  Read what he had to say after the jump.

When it comes to the new Star Wars films, everybody has an opinion.  Of course it’s kind of hard to please absolutely everyone when it comes to arguably the most popular film franchise of all time, but ever since Disney announced that a new trilogy was on the way, fans have been speculating and debating like crazy over episodes 7, 8, and 9.  J.J. Abrams has officially been tapped to bring the first film to fruition and screenwriter Michael Arndt is currently working on the script, but unsurprisingly Disney and Lucasfilm have remained mum with regards to story details.

With a targeted 2015 release date looming, some minor pieces of info regarding the new trilogy have been surfacing here and there, and the biggest news nugget concerning Episode VII is undoubtedly the fact that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford are reportedly in discussions to reprise their characters in the new film.  Fans seem to be split on whether it’s a good idea to be revisiting old characters in the new trilogy, but one wildly popular filmmaker recently took sides in the debate as The Avengers director Joss Whedon says he wouldn’t be looking to the past in Episode VII if it were up to him.  Hit the jump for Whedon’s full thoughts on the subject.

During a recent interview for his take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon also fielded some questions on comics-related projects.  At the forefront of that discussion was the upcoming ABC series Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D., but The Avengers director also addressed his consulting work for Marvel and just how the eventual stand-alone Hulk movie could work.  Whedon also commented on films in the DC universe, including his work on a Wonder Woman feature and just how far he progressed with it.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say. 

The trailer for Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado about Nothing has been released.  For those unfamiliar with William Shakespeare‘s play, it follows the trick to bring the bickering Beatrice (Amy Acker) and Benedict (Alexis Denisof) together, and the deception to tear apart the enamored Claudio (Fran Kranz) and Hero (Jillian Morgese) apart.  I caught the film at TIFF, and I was charmed by Whedon’s low-budget exercise in trying to tell a comedy without using his own snappy dialogue.  This trailer makes the film look a little more intense, but it’s understandable when trying to sell Shakespeare to a modern audience.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Clark Gregg, Tom Lenk, Ashley Johnson, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher, and Nathan Fillion.  Much Ado about Nothing opens in limited release on June 7th.