Marvel's The Avengers Trailer

Holy moly.  When all the superhero adaptations, this is one folks thought they'd never see.

It was always a bit of a pipe dream about five years ago when Marvel announced that they were forming Marvel Studios with the intent of producing their own films based on their own properties.  Cuz hey, they owned all the rights to the characters, so why not?

But still, no one was expecting that fateful day in 2008, when Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk both became big hits at the box office, and Marvel made the announcement that they were building towards this.  The plan:  Iron Man 2 and Thor in 2010, and Captain America and The Avengers in 2011.

Well, various production delays caused the schedule to be juggled around, and it soon changed to Iron Man 2 in 2010, Thor and Captain America in 2011, and The Avengers in 2012.

For those who've never followed the comics, The Avengers is Marvel's supergroup, of which Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk are all members.  And the fact that they got all the same actors from all the previous films to come back...well, it's stunning, really.

So, once again, we get to see:

• Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man
• Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Scarlett Johannson as the Black Widow
• Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
• and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and he finally gets to do more than wave after the end credits.

Marvel and Edward Norton had a bit of a falling out, so Mark Ruffalo takes over as Bruce Banner/the Hulk.  Following the original comic book origins of the team, these heroes first come together to battle Thor's brother Loki, who's launching an all-out assault on Earth.  (Tom Hiddleston is back as Loki.)  Some rumors even say that Loki has assembled an army of those perpetual Earth invaders, the Skrulls.

The man who Marvel tapped to bring all these characters together is fan favourite Joss Whedon, creator of such cult classic TV series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.  In fact, the only other big screen directorial credit Whedon has under his belt of the movie version of Firefly, Serenity.  But most have faith in the Whedon.

The first trailer came out today, and I have to admit, it looks pretty damn sweet.

Marvel's The Avengers (we have to call it that to avoid confusion with the classic TV series of the same name) hits theatres May 4, 2012.