The current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is building toward a single boiling point: The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon's Avengers sequel featuring Earth's Mightiest Heroes against the Marvel Universe's deadliest android.

"It's still early days, but I will say that like the first Avengers, [The Avengers: Age of Ultron] is the culmination of the films before it while at the same time being structured in a way that it could stand on its own," Marvel's Kevin Feige told Fandango during the recent Thor: The Dark World press junket.

"That's one of the big challenges with all our films," he continued. "And the script that's coming together for Age of Ultron is absolutely influenced by all the movies post-Avengers that lead up to it, but at the same time structurally it'll be able to stand on its own. It's exciting to see exactly how different the world of the Avengers is at the beginning of Avengers 2 than it was at the end of The Avengers, in large part because of the stories in between."

Ultron won't be the Avengers' only competition going into 2015. That summer also sees the release of the unofficially titled Batman vs. Superman, but Feige and Marvel aren't feeling the heat.

"I think there's something like seven weeks between them, which in movie-going is really a lifetime. So I don't think it's really a showdown of any kind," he said. "I'm excited to see it."