Curious to See Joss Whedon Direct 'The Avengers'? Catch Thor's End Credit Tease
by Scott Nye
In the scene, Erik (Stellan Skarsgard) goes to meet with his oft-mentioned "contact" at S.H.I.E.L.D., who turns out to be none other than Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Fury shows him a mysterious object that will probably serve as the MacGuffin in "The Avengers." While Erik looks at it, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) appears in a nearby mirror, unseen to Fury, and whispers a message to Erik which he then repeats to Fury. It's pretty straightforward, sure, but it sets up a lot more of the coming plot than any of the post-credits sequences in the other Marvel films.
In an interview with Empire at Cannes (where he was promoting Lars von Trier's "Melancholia"), Skarsgard revealed that the scene was only shot a few months ago and that Whedon himself directed it.
This isn't terribly surprising given that "The Avengers" went into production formally at the end of last month, and that "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh was probably swamped prepping that film for release. Plus, it has much more to do with "The Avengers" than "Thor" anyway.
This is an interesting evolution in the sort of made-by-committee approach Marvel has taken over the last few years. Given that they nearly didn't bring Jon Favreau back to direct the second "Iron Man" film, they clearly don't have any strong feelings about directorial voice in their product, so pretty much anyone with enough experience behind the camera will suffice.
And critics seem to have swallowed this approach hook, line, and sinker, since the first compliment I always heard about "Thor" was how good a job they did at making it feel like a part of the rest of the Marvel universe, as though uniformity is the best approach.
As always, it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out for them next year when "The Avengers" is released on May 4th, 2012.