'Avengers' Choreographer Outlines The Art Of The Superhero Fight

Writer/director Joss Whedon talks to MTV News about the challenges of putting Captain America and Thor in the same brawl.
By Kara Warner

Joss Whedon
Photo: Getty Images

Despite the seemingly endless Internet speculation about the plot of "Marvel's The Avengers", if there's one thing that we can absolutely count on seeing in the film when it opens is superhero-on-superhero fights.

We've seen brief teases of these expectedly awesome and epic battles in the trailers, several of which occur in the blink of an eye and with heavy assists from CGI, and no matter how beautiful they appear onscreen, we can't help but wonder how the filmmakers developed those complicated scenes without occasionally confusing which superhero has which superpower.

When MTV News caught up with the film's master choreographer himself, writer/director Joss Whedon, we asked him how he managed to keep all the super suits, super soldiers, demigods and archers separate when choreographing between such diverse characters.

"The big challenge was a) not to let it be generic, for it to be something we haven't seen before, but mostly to remember everybody's skill set," Whedon said at the film's red-carpet premiere on Wednesday. "The fight choreographer might come up with something where Hawkeye, Captain America and Thor are all doing the same thing and it's like, 'Well no, they all have very different levels of power,' and to sort of honor that reality for each one of them."

We followed up that question with another heavy-hitter: now that Whedon has tamed the beast that is this massive undertaking — which includes a pressure cooker of elements including a big budget, huge cast and satisfying fanboy expectations — how much vacation time will he need until he can think about another "Avengers" movie?

"17 years in a tiny cave," Whedon said. "In Tibet."

Perhaps we might be waiting awhile for that "Avengers" sequel.

Check out everything we've got on "Marvel's The Avengers."

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