Corona | Coming Attractions

During a conference call with Disney investors, company chairman and CEO Bob Iger dropped the bombshell that Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon has officially signed to write and direct The Avengers 2.

There's also this piece of news too: Whedon will be involved in some capacity with the proposed spinoff set in The Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe for ABC.

For anyone that is a fan of Joss and his work, it's a big day. Not only is Whedon coming back to his home (television work), he's riding high with Disney/Marvel and returning to New Yawk superheroes. Whedon's Avengers movie has earned one and a half billion dollars at movie theaters, becoming the third-highest grossing picture of all-time. It's set the stage for Marvel Studios' ambitious Guardians of the Galaxy movie and likely propelled interest higher in the Captain America, Thor and Iron Man sequel movies. It may have even done enough good will for Mark Ruffalo to get his own Hulk stand-alone flick one day soon.

What's open to speculation now is how much Whedon's payday will be. I'm guessing that it wasn't cheap, and that Disney likely didn't have too much difficultly agreeing to pay whatever sum (and creative control) Whedon and his negotiating team asked for.

Now that Joss Whedon is signed for Avengers 2, the next big question has to be whether Disney/Marvel can get Robert Downey Jr. to sign a new multi-picture contract and come back for a fifth time to play Tony Stark/Iron Man.