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Jon Favreau Confirms He Will Not Be Directing The Avengers

by Alex Billington
October 14, 2009
Source: MTV

We've heard off and on for a few years now, right from Jon Favreau himself, that he's been interested in actually directing Marvel's The Avengers movie, due out sometime in 2012 (if all goes as planned). Our most recent update was back in March, with an anonymous scoop on AICN claiming that Marvel really wants Favreau to direct but isn't sure there is enough time for him to do it after Iron Man 2 (but that was before they pushed Avengers to 2012). MTV recently caught up with Favreau and got an update from him about The Avengers. Unfortunately, he's not going to direct it, but that might not be a bad thing after all.

"They'll have to [find a different director], because I'm not going to be available," he explained. "It's something I'm being the executive producer on, so I'll definitely have input and a say."

He's not going to be available because he's going to be off directing Robert Downey Jr. in Cowboys & Aliens after he finishes Iron Man 2. And I have a feeling that'll be keeping him occupied until 2011, which is when The Avengers would ideally need to start shooting (if they want to make that 2012 release). However, let's look at this optimistically. We all love Favreau because he kicked so much ass with Iron Man, but he's not the only director who could do a good job with The Avengers. And with him out, that opens up the doors to so many other great possibilities, some of them pipe dreams (Christopher Nolan), some of them realities.

"That's why it's good that you have the guys from Marvel like Kevin Feige, who knows the books well and has been involved with the making of all the movies, and he'll be very involved with 'Thor' and 'Cap,'" said Favreau. "You need somebody who has the perspective of all the different franchises to bring them together. I have the myopic vision of just knowing and loving Iron Man."

I really admire that Favreau admits that he's not the right guy because he's only familiar with Iron Man and not familiar enough with the rest of the characters in The Avengers line-up: Thor, Captain America, maybe even Hulk. But, he'll be sad to let his baby go when the time comes. "It's going to be hard, because I was so involved in creating the world of Iron Man and Iron Man is very much a tech-based hero, and then with Avengers you're going to be introducing some supernatural aspects because of Thor." And that's going to be a very interesting challenge. For right now I'm just curious to see how Kenneth Branagh will tackle the Thor movie on its own. If he does a good job, I don't think it'll be as big of a challenge mixing the two later.

Before Favreau finished, he also talked a bit about the crossovers and how they're going to work (without revealing anything). Marvel is worried the cameos will leak out early, but they're trying to work them in.

"We want to reinforce a lot of the stuff we started to tip off," Favreau told MTV News. "'The Avengers' is a much larger concern for Marvel and Kevin Feige, who runs Marvel. They're going to be doing 'Thor' and 'Captain America,' and the way we might start to tease those things in this movie, some of it is stuff that we've discussed [and] some of the stuff you do last-minute as you figure out how that stuff is coming together."

There's a lot that Marvel has to think about as the studio that connects all of these projects together, but so far it's worked out great and fans have been pleased. "It's an evolving, amorphous thing," Favreau said. "If we decide and commit too early, the secret always gets out." I, for one, don't like being spoiled early and I hope that any cameos or hidden crossovers don't get revealed before Iron Man 2's release. Getting back to The Avengers, though, as I said earlier, with Favreau out, that means there's some other great director being talked to about directing The Avengers right now. Who could it be? Will they find the perfect director?

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