Director Joss Whedon recently took some time off from preparing for his highly-anticipated sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron to attend the French premiere of his William Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing. Naturally, the talk shifted to his Marvel Phase Two sequel, where he discussed the challanges of making a movie that doesn't rely on the viewer having seen Marvel's The Avengers or any of the other Marvel Phase One and Phase Two movies. He also teased that the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier will affect the storyline of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and revealed that The Godfather: Part II is his "guiding star" in telling this story.

Take a look at what he had to say during an interview with AlloCine.

"The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier will definitely affect the world of Avengers 2. But at the end of the day, I have to make my movie assuming that people will only have seen the first one, or possibly not even seen the first one. I can't assume that everybody went to see Thor: The Dark World, Captain America, and Iron Man 3 in between. I have to go from one movie to the next and be true to what's happened [in the previous movies], but not be slavish to it. The model I'm always trying to build from, or my guiding star, is The Godfather: Part II where a ton has happened in-between and it's a very different movie [from Part I], but you don't need any information. It's there in the film about what's happened since, what's different, and why is this a different film; why is it a different kind of structure, and why is it darker. It's all there, you're in the vernacular of the first movie and you're just ready to pick up in this new place, and hopefully that's what will happen with my movie. Obviously I'm talking about one of the greatest films ever made (The Godfather: Part II)... I hope mine will be good, but that is my guiding star."

The filmmaker previously mentioned director Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 sequel The Godfather: Part II in a March interview. While we still don't have any confirmed story details regarding Avengers: Age of Ultron, it seems like the director is taking a whole new approach that doesn't strictly depend on fans having seen Marvel's The Avengers. It should also be noted that The Godfather: Part II is the only sequel to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture. While it seems unlikely that Joss Whedon has Oscar aspirations for this Marvel Phase Two sequel, it's clear he's setting the storytelling bar very high.