Joss Whedon on the possibility of killing off characters in The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Last year, Joss Whedon left many a fanboy fighting back tears with the "death" of everyone's favourite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson in The Avengers (although of course the fan favourite is set to return next month for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Whedon is currently hard at work putting the finishing touches to the script for the sequel, and from what little we know about The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it seems there's an awful lot to fit in the movie (see the inclusion of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, expanded roles for Black Widow and Hawkeye, and the whole Ultron storyline), so what's the chances of Whedon thinning out the roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes by killing off an Avenger or two?

"I'm always joking about that. Um... maybe," Whedon tells Entertainment Weekly (via ComicBook). "But I’d have to have a really good reason, a really great sequence for [Marvel execs] to go, ‘We’ll cut off a potential franchise, that’s fine!’ They know as any good studio does, that without some stakes, some real danger, how involved can we get? We don’t just rule it out across the board, but neither is the mission statement ‘Who can we kill?’ We try to build the story organically and go, ‘How hard can we make it on these people?’ You go to the movies to see people you love suffer-that’s why you go to the movies."

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is set for release on May 1st 2015, with Robert Downey Jr. expected to reunite with Avengers stars Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass 2) has been strongly tipped to join the cast as Quicksilver, while his Godzilla co-star Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) looks to have secured the role of Scarlet Witch.