Joss Whedon confirmed to write and direct Avengers sequel, develop Marvel TV series

Although Marvel doesn't always hang on to its directors, and Joss Whedon had made some noise about possibly moving on to working with some original characters again pretty soon, Disney confirmed today that Whedon will definitely return to direct The Avengers sequel. The announcement was made today that not only has Whedon signed on to write and direct the follow-up—which is presumably due sometime in 2015—he's also digging himself even deeper into both Marvel and other people's intellectual property, signing on to develop a live-action TV series set within the Marvel universe for ABC. Though concrete details on that last project are still scarce, previous reports on its early stages said that numerous ideas were being considered, including turning it something along the lines of a "high-concept cop show." (Like Cop Rock, obviously.) But whatever the eventual direction of both the series and the sequel, those who saw The Avengers of an example of how Whedon brought the best lessons of television to the world of comic-book movies should find this welcome news.