Iron Man 3 Writer Drew Pearce Says Joss Whedon Is Doing Avengers 3

Given the way both filmmaker Joss Whedon and executives at Marvel Studios have been talking about Marvel's The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron as part of a trilogy for some time now, it's arguably not surprising that Whedon is the favorite to direct the as-yet-unannounced third film in the franchise, but according to Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce, Whedon is already locked in for the movie. "One of the things when you're a writer or director in the Marvel universe is you come in, you leave some tasty morsels dangling at the end, and maybe you're the one who comes in and picks them up again next time, or maybe it's someone else, or maybe they just hang there awhile and that's fine too," Pearce told movies.com in a new interview promoting his short film All Hail the King, which ships on the Thor: The Dark World Blu-ray today. "Despite any cliffhanger-ness to the short, I also don't feel like it's unsatisfying. That's all you can really hope to do. Unless you're Joss [Whedon] and you're making Avengers 2 and 3, and then you have a pretty good idea if you're making the next one or not." While the film hasn't technically been released yet, it's not only a foregone conclusion from a financial point of view, but a number of actors are already under contract for it--including Robert Downey, Jr., whose contract was up after Iron Man 3 and who apparently won't return for any more solo films as Tony Stark but who did agree to a pair of Avengers sequels.