Trivia
Tony Stark describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing." This refers to the bold label that has appeared on "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 publication. The phrase has also been used as the subtitle for The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the most recent animated series before the live-action Avengers film.
Share this
Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo.
Share this
Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cobie Smulders screen tested for the role of Agent Maria Hill. Smulders was eventually cast.
Share this
Lou Ferrigno voices the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk and its subsequent three TV specials, and he voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (he was seen in Hulk but it was a cameo role as a security guard, which he repeated in The Incredible Hulk ). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.
Share this
Chris Hemsworth had to increase and expand his dietary/food intake in order to maintain the physique he built up for Thor, consisting of chicken breasts, fish, steak and eggs every day (Hemsworth said he had to consume "his body weight in protein.").
Share this
Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon - he's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!"
Share this
Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture. Previous live-action versions have had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated.
Share this
Director Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story 'Gifted' for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men: The Last Stand.
Share this
Producer Kevin Feige compares the film to Transformers: Dark of the Moon: "It set a standard for that level of ZOMG-awesomeness and scale. We're working to try to outdo that."
Share this
Mark Ruffalo states it was an honour to take over as Bruce Banner from his friend Edward Norton: "Ed has bequeathed this part to me, I look at it as my generation's Hamlet."
Share this
According to Joss Whedon, the film is strongly influenced by the early 1960s Avengers comics, which he was a fan of while growing up: "In those comics these people shouldn't be in the same room let alone on the same team - and that is the definition of family."
Share this
Tom Hiddleston spoke of his role as Loki in an interview by saying, "I can tell you that it's all of them against me. I am the super villain. So it's Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury forming a team because I've got so bad ass."
Share this
After Loki is brought on board the Helicarrier, Tony Stark can be seen wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt. Black Sabbath is better known for their song "Iron Man." Although the song was not originally associated with the Marvel Comics character, it has since been referenced in the comics and the end of Iron Man when Tony quotes the lyric, "I am Iron Man."
Share this
This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast/crew for a comic book movie, or most movies for that matter: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, director Joss Whedon, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Iron Man 2, and Iron Man which each had four nominees a piece.
Share this
The cast became good friends while filming so if all the actors happened to be filming scenes together in the same place, they would go out together after.
Share this
Since this film and Iron Man 3 were originally part of a six-picture deal with Marvel and Paramount before the distribution rights were transferred to Walt Disney Pictures, it's the Paramount logo that appears in advertising and marketing as well as the beginning of this film. Although Paramount had no part in the production of "The Avengers", they still received a share of the box office grosses based on their original deal with Marvel. No reference to Disney is made until the very end of the closing credits, where it says "The Avengers" is "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures." The same is to be expected for "Iron Man 3".
Share this
Chris Evans once sent a text message to Clark Gregg simply saying "Assemble", which is the tagline for the movie. Gregg stated that this was his favorite text message ever sent to him.
Share this
This is only the second time that Bruce Banner/Hulk and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in The Incredible Hulk Returns.
Share this
According to director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over 3 hours long. About 30 minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. Chris Evans has since announced that these deleted scenes will be used for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Share this
Tom Hiddleston revealed in an interview with the Guardian that the code name for the film early in its production was 'Group Hug'.
Share this
Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all the X-men movies) to play the same comic book superhero in five different movies.
Share this
The Chitauri appear in the first story arc of "The Ultimates," an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using The Chitauri instead of the Skrulls was that because Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters however Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Fox. The reason for them not being used was that Joss Whedon did not want go the route of using shape-shifters in the first film.
Share this
Thor spends most of this movie in his Asgardian armor but with bare arms, a nod to his early appearances in the comics. During his time on the Helicarrier, he is also seen without his cape, an allusion to his Ultimate Comics appearance.
Share this
Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is from the Ultimate Marvel Universe created in 2000 to re-imagine and update the Marvel heroes for the 21st century. Fury's likeness was actually based on Jackson, who gave Marvel permission to do so. Subsequently, based on that likeness and his star power, Jackson was cast as Fury for all Marvel superhero films owned by Marvel/Disney.
Share this
Though Mark Ruffalo is the only actor not to appear in a previous Marvel Comics film as his character, Lou Ferrigno reprised his role as the voice of The Hulk from Edward Norton's 2008 film. Ferrigno has voiced the hulk in virtually every incarnation since The Incredible Hulk television show with Bill Bixby in 1977. The exception is Ang Lee's 2003 film Hulk version where Ferrigno played a security guard.
Share this
In the movie, Captain America is a founding member. In the comics, Captain America was unfrozen in Avengers #4 when he was accidentally discovered when the team was looking for Namor the Sub Mariner.
Share this
To prepare for the role of Agent Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Jeremy Renner was trained by Olympic archers.
Share this
The crew hired 25 members of the Ohio based 391st Military police force battalion for the attack on New York city scene to add realism for the battle.
Share this
The battle cry of the Avengers, "Avengers Assemble" was not spoken throughout the film. However Chris Evans would say it behind the scenes to call out the rest of cast via text message to hang out off the set.
Share this
The final end credit scene was added after Robert Downey Jr.. encouraged a scene rewrite: after Tony Stark falls back to Earth, he originally awakens and asks, "What's next?". Robert Downey Jr. thought the line could be more interesting, and the idea of going to a local shawarma restaurant was born. The scene was added one day after the global premiere. Since then, shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston have reportedly skyrocketed.
Share this
The outdoor scenes which were supposed to take place in Germany, but were filmed in downtown Cleveland, contained numerous Cleveland Historical landmarks including; Tower City, Higbee Building & Casino, Renaissance Building, and the Soldiers & Sailors Monument.
Share this
The "wishbone" section of the helicarrier where Banner's lab is located is referred to in naval architecture as a "well deck"; it provides a sheltered docking area typically used for launching small boats or hover craft for carrying troops ashore.
Share this
All the scenes filmed in Ohio were originally to be filmed in Michigan. Planned production was moved to Ohio when it was revealed that Michigan's film tax rebates were going to be revoked.
Share this
Loki is described as being a king in the world from which he came. Shortly after this when The Avengers ask for Loki's location, Loki is said to be at "22 Königstrasse". König is German for "king".
Share this
After Thor takes Loki off the Quinjet down on the mountain side, two large ravens fly by them as they are talking. In Norse mythology, their father, Odin, had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who would bring Odin information from Midgard (Earth).
Share this
Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders's co-star from How I Met Your Mother, suggested to director Joss Whedon that he get Smulders to read for the part of Maria Hill. Hannigan had also worked with Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Share this
The single-engine jet fighters are computer-rendered Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs. F-35s appear briefly in several scenes, including a sequence of the airplane transitioning from forward flight to vectored-thrust hover mode to fire its 25mm cannon. The F-35 is still in development and will not even have basic combat capability until late 2015.
Share this
Tony Stark's Acura roadster is neither the 2012 NSX Concept show car nor an actual prototype of the 2015 next-generation hybrid Acura NSX. It was custom designed specifically for the movie by Honda North America chief designer Dave Marek. The "donor car" was a 1991 NSX from Arizona with 252,000 miles on its odometer. The interior of the movie car is almost totally stock, and still has the original cassette tape player in the console.
Share this
At the end of the film, when the news clip of the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen it is listed as SHIELD File A113. "A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts
Share this
The waitress saved by Captain America and later interviewed about The Avengers is called "Beth" (the name can be seen in her T-shirt during the interview).
Share this
In order to create a total extraterrestrial look for the Chitauri, they have four thumbs, two on each hand. This can be seen when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is talking with The Other (Alexis Denisof).
Share this
Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, both Eric Bana and Edward Norton have done motion capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on set via performance capture.
Share this
The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the USA. It tied with Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (19 days) and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the USA (14 days).
Share this
Reputedly a scene was filmed where during the final battle Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to 'Get them to cover' but as he walks away the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?'. He turns and noting the man's World War 2 veteran lapel pin trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away the children ask their grandfather 'Do you know him?' and he replies 'We ALL know him'.
Share this
The name "chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky". Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "chitauri" are in fact aliens bent on dominating humanity.
Share this
Altough SHIELD possesses future technology such as the Helecarrier or the futuristic shuttles, some outdated aircraft can still be seen on the carrier. There is a huge number of Alpha-Jets, a German-French co-production that were put out of service by the German air forces in 1993. And we see some AV-8B Harrier II+, the night attack variant of the Sea Harrier, that is recognizable by its stretched nose and is still in service with the US Marine Corps. Finally there is the latest and most capable aircraft on board: the F-35 Lightning II that is about to be put in service by many air forces throughout the world.
Share this
After Iron Man flies through a Leviathan, he can be seen crashing on the ground in front of the Shawarma Palace, the which later appeared in a post-credits scene.
Share this
When Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner are blasted to a lower deck of the Helicarrier, it triggers Banner's transformation into the Hulk. As he is transforming, he falls from a platform to the floor. On the floor is painted "WARNING CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE" with small arrows, which happen to be pointing to Banner.
Share this
Surpassed The Dark Knight's record of $1,001,921,825 to become the highest grossing comic book film of all time.
Share this
The Hulk's voice is a combination of Mark Ruffalo and Lou Ferrigno's voices: when the Hulk is roaring, growling etc it's Ferrigno, but it's Ruffalo who speaks the Hulk's only two words in the film.
Share this
Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is an ambidextrous archer (although Jeremy Renner is left handed). He is seen shooting right-handed in Thor and both left-handed and right-handed in this film.
Share this
The classical music being played for the Stuttgart Museum where they steal the iridium is Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, D. 804, Op. 29 ('Rosamunde').
Share this
The train engines are not only US models they front of the engine shows the Norfolk Southern Railway symbol.
Share this
The laboratory scene where Bruce Banner explains how he once attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the mouth is a direct reference to a deleted scene from The Incredible Hulk where Edward Norton's Bruce Banner tried to commit suicide in this manner out in the middle of Alaska's wilderness only to be stopped by his transformation into the Hulk.
Share this
Loki's staff which has a glowing blue gem in the spear head that allows him to control the minds of others. This is a possible reference to the Mind Gem, one of the seven Infinity Gems used by Thanos the Mad Titan, shown in the post-credits scene.
Share this
According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the helicarrier bridge were arranged to resemble the wings of the SHIELD logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film when repairs are being made.
Share this
Several members of the cast participated in adaptations of comic book and/or graphic novel adaptations prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
Share this
- Scarlett Johansson has appeared in Ghost World and The Spirit
- Chris Evans appeared in Fantastic Four, TMNT, The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
- Powers Boothe (who provides a cameo in the film) previously appeared in Sin City
- and Alexis Denisof appeared in several DC productions beforehand.
One of the cards in Agent Coulson's Captain America card set is a reproduction of Captain America's first comic book appearance where he punches out Hitler.
Share this
The silver stripes on the shoulders of Captain America's uniform have two indents in them which look like a pair of vertical standing silver bars. The U.S. Army insignia for denoting a captain is two vertical silver bars.
Share this
The German police car skidding on its front end after Loki blasts it was a complete accident, as it failed to flip over initially.
Share this
According to Joss Whedon's commentary, Bruce Banner's saying of Loki, "You can smell crazy on him", was a setup for when the Hulk faces off against Loki in Stark Tower. Originally, Loki was going to make multiple versions of himself and the only way the Hulk was going to discern where Loki was to smell them. Only the real Loki would have a scent.
Share this
Stark's prank on the phone where he pretends to be a Life Model Decoy is a dig at Nick Fury, who uses android replicas called Life Model Decoys in his job as soy.
Share this
Stark Tower stands where the MetLife building should be. The digital model of the tower that Pepper is looking at shows that the bottom third of the tower retains the shape of the MetLife building with the rest of the floors redesigned.
Share this
The filmmakers secured the rights from Columbia Pictures to feature OsCorp Tower from The Amazing Spider-Man in New York. Unfortunately, by then digital rendering of the skyline was already complete and it could not appear.
Share this
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey shot the film in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio to cope with the varying heights: "We needed the height in the screen to be able to frame in all the characters like Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow, who is much smaller. We had to give them all precedence and width within the frame. Also, the final battle sequence was going to be this extravaganza in Manhattan, so the height and vertical scale of the buildings was going to be really important."
Share this
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive and did not want a comic-book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes and on dollies to create kinetic images; and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery."
Share this
Disney had the film's title changed in the United Kingdom to "Avengers Assemble" to avoid confusion with the The Avengers series and its 1998 film adaptation.
Share this
Originally Joss Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, reasoning "You need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team." However, he eventually decided to cast Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany and Gwyneth Paltrow (Paltrow was cast at Robert Downey Jr.'s insistence).
Share this
The female superhero Wasp was included in an early draft of the script. She was however replaced with the already-existing Black Widow.
Share this
The CGI Hulk's body was modeled after Long Island bodybuilder and male stripper Steve Romm, while the Hulk's face was modeled after Mark Ruffalo.
Share this
Robert Downey Jr. initially pushed Joss Whedon to make Tony Stark the lead: "I said, I need to be in the opening sequence, Tony needs to drive this thing. He was like, okay, let's try that. We tried it... and it didn't work, because this is a different sort of thing, everybody is just an arm of the octopus."
Share this
Samuel L. Jackson compared his role of Nick Fury to Ordell in Jackie Brown: "He's a nice guy to hang out with, you just don't want to cross him... I tried to make him as honest to the story and as honest to what real-life would seem."
Share this
This is the third time Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans have starred together in a film, both being in The Perfect Score and The Nanny Diaries. This is also the second collaboration between Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo since Zodiac
Share this
The evil character Thanos the Mad Titan smiles during the credits at the phrase "To court death." In the comics, Thanos is in love with and always attempts to romance Mistress Death, who is the physical embodiment of death.
Share this
Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that he admires his work on anti-electron collisions. When electrons and anti-electrons (also known as positrons) collide, they annihilate each other and high-energy photons or gamma rays (the fictional means by which Bruce Banner became The Hulk) are produced in their place.
Share this
Alan Silvestri is the first composer to score more than one movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Share this
From the end of the fight between Captain America, Ironman, and Thor to the end scene where he teleports back to Asgard with Thor, LokI's feet never touch the ground. He is either on the helecarier, in Stark Tower or flying around New York on one of the alien craft.
Share this
'Robert Downey, Jr.' kept food hidden all over the lab set and apparently nobody could find where it was, so they just let him continue doing it. In the movie, that's his actual food he's offering and when he was eating, it wasn't scripted. He was just hungry.
Share this
Cameo
Stan Lee:
creator of such Marvel comics as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many others, is the old man being interviewed at the end of the New York battle montage who says: "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!" and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. He also appeared in a deleted scene: after witnessing a waitress flirt with Steve Rogers, Lee's character says, "Ask for her number, you moron!"
Share this
J. August Richards:
At the end of the movie, on the bottom left of the screen is an African American couple. Richards played Charles Gunn in Joss Whedon's Angel.
Share this
Director Trademark
Joss Whedon:
[Bare Feet]
The Black Widow fights off her interrogators wearing stockings, and a closeup of her feet is shown when she bends over to pick up her high heels. Also, Pepper Potts is barefoot in all the scenes set at the apartment in Stark Tower.
Share this
Joss Whedon:
[Killing off a popular character]
Agent Phil Coulson, a character who earned considerable popularity with fans through his appearance in almost all of the previous Marvel Studios films, is killed off in the middle of the film, giving the Avengers someone to avenge. On the commentary, Whedon says that it was not his decision to kill off Coulson in the film and that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige made the call. Whedon would later bring Coulson back in "Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.", a TV show he developed with Marvel and Disney's ABC.
Share this
Spoilers
Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor: "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up he's seen a few things and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard...."
Share this
Loki brings the Chitauri alien race to Earth to help him invade it, thus requiring the Avengers to be formed to prevent this. This is in keeping with the comics, where Loki was also responsible for manipulating a chain of disasters which brought together the Avengers in the first place (incidentally, in the very first issue of their self-titled comic book series).
Share this
The Chitauri, the villainous alien race of this film, were the primary villains of the first volume of "The Ultimates", a comic book re-imagining of The Avengers. Subsequently Loki was one of the primary villains of the second volume of The Ultimates, though his appearance had nothing to do with the Chitari.
Share this
The decimation of Stark Tower during the final battle destroys the company logo, leaving only the illuminated "A" at the end of the film. This is a subtle nod (and potential sequel set-up) to the comics where the Avengers operate out of a giant building alternatively depicted as an "A" shaped building, or as a skyscraper with a giant "A" crowning the top.
Share this
The character the minion is talking to in the credits is Thanos the Mad Titan, a major supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He is a cosmic mass murderer who is literally in love with the personification of Death, which is why he is smiling at the phrase, "To court death."
Share this
Seconds before Hawkeye's attack on S.H.I.E.L.D's Helicarrier, Bruce Banner finds the Tesseract's location on the computer. This explains why later he arrives in New York during the invasion of the Chitauri after the Hulk (Banner transformed) fell to the ground from the helicarrier during Hawkeye's attack.
Share this
In the closing montage of the film, Pepper Potts shows Tony Stark a hologram of plans to rebuild the top of Stark Tower. In the hologram a Quinjet is clearly visible in the middle of the structure, one among several hints in the film to the possible use of Stark Tower as future Headquarters of the Avengers (as occurred in the comic series).
Share this
Besides the indication that "The Other" is talking to Thanos in the mid-credits scene (Thanos apparently being his master), there is another subtle nod to Thanos in Agent Coulson's remark to Loki that he lacks conviction and has an innate desire to lose - this, a subconscious desire to fail, is said (in the comics) to be Thanos' only weakness.
Share this
The face of Tom Hiddleston was digitally inserted when Hulk slams Loki. Animation director Marc Chu shook Hiddleston repeatedly to get the facial reactions.
Share this
In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut and grew out his beard after The Avengers was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene and refused to shave off his beard due to having been filming Snowpiercer at the time, so they gave him the prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on. The wig he wears as Captain America is also quite clearly visible in certain shots of this scene.
Share this
According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He for me is THE most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses and he's in love with Death and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control and had to be behind Loki's work and I was like it's got to be Thanos."
Share this
A S.H.I.E.L.D. employee is briefly seen playing Galaga, which foreshadows the Avengers' battle with the Chitauri.
Share this
