Early last year, we brought you an interview with director Joss Whedon, who spoke a bit about a potential sequel to The Avengers. When the writer-director was asked how he would make a follow-up bigger than the original, he had this to say:

“By not trying to. By being smaller. More personal, more painful. By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time. By having a theme that is completely fresh and organic to itself. I want to know what makes them tick, what makes them flawed, what makes them fight – and ultimately, what makes them awesome. I go to these movies for those moments when the heroes define themselves, either through action or deliciously overwritten speeches.”

Now, we may see some of that come to fruition. Deadline reports that Joss Whedon will officially return to both write and direct the sequel to The Avengers, which has scored almost $1.5 billion world-wide thus far at the box office. Not only that, but Marvel Studios released a statement that Whedon “has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015“, and in addition to writing and directing The Avengers sequel, Whedon will also “help develop a new live action series for Marvel Television at ABC“, and will “contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe”.

The as yet untitled sequel to The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon and starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jeremy Renner is slated to hit theaters in 2015.