'The Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Is Robert Downey Jr's Hero

Even if you haven't heard of Joss Whedon, you've likely heard of his work. The same man behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" also wrote the screenplays for "Toy Story," "Titan A.E.," "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Alien: Resurrection," wrote, directed and funded "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" out of his own pocket, co-wrote the darkly hilarious movie "The Cabin in the Woods" and did a run on the comic book series "Astonishing X-Men."

Because of his previous work, Whedon was uniquely qualified to write and direct "Marvel's The Avengers." Even though Marvel really wanted him at the helm of their ambitious project, it took some convincing to get him to accept. Apparently Whedon wasn't too impressed with the initial script that "X-Men: The Last Stand" writer, Zak Penn, showed him.

"They showed me a script and I said, 'I don't see a movie here,'" Whedon told The Los Angeles Times in an interview on set last summer. "I wasn't really thinking about it as a gig. I could do this. It was a gradual thing. Like quicksand. I did tell them up front that I wasn't coming in thinking, 'Can I get this?' The question in my head was, 'Can this get me?'"

It did, and he got the job. According to the cast, he excelled at it too.

"There are new depths of discovery for our characters, there are new things in the air and they each feel more real," Robert Downey Jr. said. "The guy's my hero. He should be yours."

If Tom Hiddleston is to be believed, Whedon does better with the villains of his films than he does the heroes. That's good news for Loki, who returns after being defeated by his brother in "Thor."

"The brain power is astonishing and he's always giggling about something," Hiddleston said. "He has this intermittently generous and supportive side as a director but I also think as an artist he has a really dark sense of humor. He kept telling me how much fun he had writing Loki. He steps inside the villains in a way that he doesn't with the heroes."

According to Stan Lee, the real challenge in bringing "The Avengers" to the big screen was in making them work together as a group without having them seem silly or campy.

"We used to put anything in there that we could think of because all you had to do was be able to draw it," the 89-year-old said. "They could never make it a TV show or a movie because it would look ridiculous. But now they can do it with the special effects—[and] it's not ridiculous."

We're glad it's not ridiculous, because that means there's more of a chance of Whedon working with Marvel again in the future.

Are you excited to see what Whedon does with "The Avengers"? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!