Back in April we brought you what was “technically” a rumor about writer/director Joss Whedon being brought onboard to direct the Marvel Studios superhero team-up film, The Avengers. I say technically because it was such a prolific rumor and neither the studio or Whedon himself denied it and then stories of meetings between actors and other Marvel movie directors began to surface, so we assumed it was a done deal.

Now, at the Comic-Con’s Visionaries panel, Joss Whedon (Serenity, Firefly) confirmed that he is directing The Avengers.

Whedon said,

“I am directing The Avengers.”

Whedon then stated that he’s still in the outline stages of the script, and told the audience what he loved about The Avengers,

“It’s totally counterintuitive. These people should not be in the same room together, let alone on a team, and that to me is the definition of family.”

An audience member asked Whedon how he will blend his writing style with the tone of The Avengers.

Whedon replied,

The fact is the first job I had outside of television was a script doctor, and what you have to do in that situation is blend in. A lot of the way that I speak and write comes from reading these comics. I think it’s very, very easy to fall into the aesthetic of something that you love. Obviously I’m going to bring some of myself to it. I’m an artist who wishes to create something that comes from within, but at the same time, yes they have an established tone, I’m going to be respectful of that. I’m culling things from all these different movies, I have to blend all of that. Ultimately that would result ins something unique anyway. That doesn’t seem like a challenge to me at all. When I write Tony Stark or Steve Rogers, they sound like them. Particularly because I already know who’s playing them.

The film will feature Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson (among others not yet “confirmed”).

The Avengers is slated to hit theaters on May 4th, 2012.