You would think that saying "yes" to returning to direct The Avengers 2 would have come easily to Joss Whedon and you wouldn't be wrong.  But the fan-favorite director of the year's biggest film did have to mull over the decision a bit before finally accepting.  Not that it was a difficult task to turn down gazillions of dollars.  But Whedon still seems to carry a chip on his shoulder about past failures that fell by the wayside through no fault of his own.   The success of The Avengers was a huge step in giving Whedon creative freedom going forward and it appears as if he's ready to put his signature mark on the franchise with The Avengers 2.  Hit the jump to read comments from Whedon himself on accepting the director's chair again. Whedon recently did a number of interviews in which he commented on his thought process on returning to direct The Avengers 2.  The first film was certainly a trial for him.  NME quotes him as saying that The Avengers was, "an enormous amount of work telling what is ultimately somebody else's story."  But Whedon seems a bit more enthusiastic and optimistic about the sequel, saying:

"Avengers 2, it wasn't a tough decision. For a long time I thought, 'Well, it's just not going to happen', [but] when I actually started to consider it, it became so clear that I desperately wanted to say more about these characters.

"It would've been an easy no and it was a spectacularly easy yes.  There was no wrestling. Either scenario was delightful. It was a win-win, but I'm very excited about it."

In another interview with CoCreate, Whedon shared an amusing anecdote about his decision making process when presented with the opportunity to return for The Avengers 2:

 “There’s a business aspect to it and I would be disingenuous not to say that, but the question for me is, Do I have another story to tell about these people? So we worked on the business side of it and I didn’t think it was going to happen--I was like 'I’m never going to do this again.' But once they worked on the business aspect of it I thought that seems fair and cool, so, the question was, Do I have another thing to say? I was in London and I went to a pub and had some fish and chips and a pint and started writing in my notebook. I’m writing if I was going to do this what would I say and 40 minutes later I filled the notebook. So I text my agent and said to make the deal. I’m so in love with that universe and the characters and they way they were played and I have so much more I want to do with them. I know I can’t match the success of the first one but I can try to make a better film and that’s what I’m excited about, that’s the new room of fear I’m entering now.”

The Avengers 2 hits theaters May 1st, 2015.