Joss Whedon on The Avengers (2012 film)

“Q: On some level, you just want to see famous actors playing these characters you’ve so dearly for so long. A: You want to see Captain America and Tony Stark not like each other, articulately. Writing them was where I started. They represent two polar opposites and I’m basically Tony and I wish I was Steve [Rogers, Cap’s alter ego]. I believe everything that Steve says, but at the end of the day, I’m more like Tony, without the brilliance and the billions.”

“Q: How much of that polish was you prepping for The Avengers and specifically the Steve Rogers character? Were you building something in there that was going to lead into this? A: I didn’t like sneak any particular Avengers easter eggs in. But I did spend a lot of time with the character, which for me was important, because Steve’s perspective in this world is very much, as much as anybody’s if not more, the audience’s. He is looking at this world with fresh eyes and he is not impressed. His feeling of disconnection is something that’s going to be laced throughout the film. It’s a film about lonely people, because I’m making it, and my pony only does one trick. He’s a classic man out of time in the very literal sense and so to have worked on his 40s incarnation, even a little bit, was a nice introduction to this and kept be grounded in his perspective.”