The Avengers (2012): Joss Whedon Talks Marvel Mandates, Nick Fury, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye

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Posted by: Matt McGloin, Editor/Publisher
November 18, 2011 12:07 | Updated: 13 weeks 5 days Ago

picThe director of The Avengers, Joss Whedon, spoke with Yahoo Movies about the upcoming movie featuring Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk and more.

There were more than a few interesting tidbits, which you can check out in the original article, but here are a couple of the stand outs.

Whedon explained that in regards to Samuel L. Jackson's character, Nick Fury, Marvel presented a couple mandates. Seems Marvel wants the character to be presented in a specific manner.

Also -- and this is something that I was very pleased that Marvel actually mandated -- they were very interested in keeping him, not just in the sort of a mystery of how the organization operates, but a real moral gray area where you really have to decide, "Is Nick Fury the most manipulative guy in the world? Is he a good guy? Is he completely Machiavellian or is it a bit of both?" And that was really fun to tweak.

Whedon is asked about Mark Ruffalo, who plays The Hulk for the first time, and whether or not there is a freedom in being able to do something different with the character (for example, compared to Iron Man who has already been in two prior films).

Yeah, he and I did the most character work of anyone, because we really were starting fresh, but we were starting with something that had been embodied several times.
 
And both of us agreed upfront that the template for who we wanted this guy to be in his life was Bill Bixby, the TV [show character] who was busy helping other people. That was more interesting to us than the Banner in the first two movies who was always fixated on curing himself. We spent a lot of time talking about what makes us Hulk out, the nature of anger, how it feels.
 
We even fought some. I mean literally we actually got some pads out and did some tussling. Just to talk about the physicality, and also the physicality of somebody who has to control this thing, and the way he moves in space and the way he relates to the people and the objects around him. It was extremely fun. What we found was that he could be very bumbling and kind of awkward, but at the same time very graceful and in this almost transcendent control of himself.
 
Also, Whedon talks about keeping the action fresh and says that it was harder to do things for the god-like character, Thor, compared to a normal fellow like Hawkeye.
 
Yeah. Well, I feel like we pulled that off. At the end of the day, the guy with the bow and arrow is a lot easier to write gags for than the God. But we created a situation where everybody can be useful, and everybody can be in jeopardy, and they really can act as a team, even though -- as we have known from the first issue of 'The Avengers' comic -- there's no reason for these people to be on the same team.
 

The Avengers assembles May 4th, 2012 and is directed by Joss Whedon, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.

Head on over to the Cosmic Book News The Avengers Movie Hub for more news, images and trailers.

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