We recently caught up with director Joe Johnston, the man behind this July's epic summer superhero adventure Captain America: The First Avenger. And he explained that the Steve Rogers we will see in The Avengers is different from the one Chris Evans is portraying in the stand-alone film. Part of that comes from the director distancing himself from The Avengers production.

This is what he had to say.

"Chris Evans plays a slightly different character in The Avengers. Which I think is good. I think he should be a different character, because he is in a different world. He is still Steve Rogers, and he retains those traits that make him the guy we all call Captain America, but at the same time, he should be different. Now? He is a man out of time. It should affect him. I really don't know anything about The Avengers, and I chose not to get involved in it. I haven't read the script, I haven't seen any footage. Because I didn't want it to influence me. I didn't want to think, "That is what they are doing in that one? Hmm? I better rethink this." I wanted this movie to stand-alone. As a period film. As the only Marvel film that is period. It is the only superhero movie of the summer that is period too. I think we are going to stand alone, and be different from the rest. Though, it is a busy summer. There are a lot of movies out there."

That calls into question what will happen with the character of Steve Rogers should Joe Johnston come back for Captain America 2. Having stayed away from The Avengers, how does that affect his approach to the sequel?

"I would definitely look at it, and see what they've done. We have talked about a sequel to this film possibly staying in the 1940s. He had a lot of his interests, and he was Captain America for three years during WWII, so there are more stories there. We don't necessarily have to come back to the present day with it. Though, we could..."