 By April 2010 , Joss Whedon was close to completing a deal to direct the film and to rework Penn 's script , and was officially announced in July 2010 . When Whedon received Penn 's draft , he told Feige he felt the studio did not " have anything " and they should " pretend this draft never happened " . Whedon went on to write a five page treatment of his plan for the film , and created the tagline " Avengers : Some Assembly Required " , riffing on the " Avengers Assemble " slogan from the comic books . Marvel quickly began working to sign Whedon to write and direct , only stipulating that he include the Avengers against Loki , a battle among the heroes in the middle , a battle against the villains at the end , and he get the movie done for its May 2012 release . On the hiring , Arad stated : " My personal opinion is that Joss will do a fantastic job . He loves these characters and is a fantastic writer ... It 's part of his life so you know he is going to protect it ... I expect someone like him is going to make the script even better " . Feige added , " I 've known Joss for many years . We were looking for the right thing and he came in and met on it ... we want [ ed ] to find a director that ’ s on the verge of doing something great , as we think Joss is . " Whedon stated at the 2010 San Diego Comic @-@ Con International , that what drew him to the film is that he loves how " these people shouldn 't be in the same room let alone on the same team — and that is the definition of family " . 
