THE AVENGERSYes, Earth's Mightiest Movie still leads in comic book film news -- perhaps even more so now that the film's mid- and post-credits scenes have been revealed to all who have seen the film. In fact /Film spoke with both Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and director Joss Whedon about the first post-credits scene. Apparently, it was all Whedon's idea to use [SPOILERS]Thanos[/SPOILERS] in the mid-credits scene.

"I wanted to get cosmic and did with 'Thor' and told him that we wanted it to be aliens, that a portal opens in New York and aliens poor out, because the cosmic cube opened a portal," Feige told /Film. "Who they were, what they were, and how they interacted was all Joss and Joss is a huge fan of [SPOILERS]Thanos[/SPOILERS]."

Whedon also spoke about the surprise appearance in the mid-credits scene. His quote is entirely spoiler-iffic, so if you haven't seen the movie, don't highlight this blank space below with your mouse cursor.

[SPOILERS]"He for me is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain," Whedon told /Film. "He's the great grand daddy of the badasses and he's in love with death and I just think that's so cute. For me, the greatest Avengers was 'The Avengers' annual that Jim Starlin did followed by 'The Thing 2 in 1' that contained the death of Adam Warlock. Those were some of the most important texts and I think underrated milestones in Marvel history and Thanos is all over that, so somebody had to be in control and had to be behind Loki's work and I was like 'It's got to be Thanos.' And they said 'Okay' and I'm like 'Oh my God!'"[/SPOILERS]

Whedon also spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his "insanely massive ego" in thinking he could pull off "The Avengers."

"I was out of my mind," Whedon told THR. "There was many times when I was writing, when I was filming, that I thought, a grown-up should be doing this!"

Feige recently did an interview with iO9 and explained why there was no rallying cry of "Avengers Assemble!" anywhere in the film.

"There wasn't a right place for it, it was cheesy overtime," Feige told iO9. "Here's what I like, the catch phrase that you might expect is not in that movie, but people will walk out of that movie with many different catch phrases. "We have a Hulk" being one of them, that people already use. We didn't say [to director Joss Whedon] 'You have to say it in the movie!' We did say, 'Is it going to fit anywhere, can you do it anywhere?' And Joss looked. That 360 shot (which is my favorite moment in the whole movie) -- if right at the end of that, he goes 'Avengers Assemble!' [then] well, we just assembled. You do it without saying, it gives more impact."

Vulture has conducted an intriguing experiment with "The Avengers," timing the amount of screen time each major Avenger receives. The final standings may surprise you -- the top three with the most time on screen according to Vulture are Captain America, Iron Man and the Black Widow in that order.

Finally, for those who were unaware, the Pentagon actually does not appear in "The Avengers" for an actual reason: they refused to take part. According to Wired, the U.S. military's relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. as portrayed in the film is what kept the Defense Department from participating in the blockbuster film.

"We couldn't reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it," Defense Department Hollywood liaison Phil Strub told Wired. "To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn't do anything."

Now assembled in theaters

PROMETHEUSRidley Scott's sci-fi epic "Prometheus" is fast approaching its release date and there are a number of new details that have come to light. First up is a new TV spot courtesy of SciFi Mafia.

Comic Book Movie reports a leaked "Prometheus" call sheet posted by thepropstop.files.wordpress.com that reveals some new details about a scene from the film.

To top it all off, here's a brand new image of Michael Fassbender as David from Filmnews.hu.

Opens June 8

IRON MAN 3Spinoff Online reports actress Jessica Chastain, who was stated as in the running for a starring role in the upcoming "Iron Man 3" film, has turned down the role. Chastain revealed she would be passing on the role of "a sexy scientist every bit as smart as [Tony] Stark" via her Facebook page, saying, "Sorry to say that Iron Man 3 isn't going to work out. My schedule is jammed packed and I can't fit anything else in. The press announced my possible attachment far too soon. I know many of you wanted me to be involved, and I'm so sorry to disappoint you. Hopefully there'll be another Marvel film in my future. Shane Black and everyone on the IM3 team are really wonderful. I'm very excited to see the film when it comes out."

Before Chastain was revealed as the first choice for the role, Marvel had lined up meetings with Diane Kruger, Gemma Arterton and Isla Fisher for the role.

Opens May 3, 2013

DREDD"Game of Thrones" and "Dredd" actress Lena Headley spoke with The L.A. Times' Hero Complex about the upcoming reboot of "Judge Dredd" and her character, Madeline "Ma Ma" Madrigal.

"The world [in the film] feels really British, and I don't know if that's because it's so dirty and dark," Headey said. "And it's ... violent. Just in terms of gunplay, they're not afraid to show blood and gunshot wounds. And it's set up in this concrete sort of shanty town -- it's shanty but they're blocks -- concrete favelas."

Opens September 21, 2012

AMAZING SPIDER-MANThe viral campaign for "The Amazing Spider-Man" continues, this time with real mail! According to Comic Book Movie, folks who signed up and submitted photos to viral website WebbedMenace.com received a Lucha Libre wrestling poster in the mail with a very familiar looking mask.

Courtesy of Russian fansite StarkIndustries.ru, here are two new promotional images of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.

Opens July 3

R.I.P. MAURICE SENDAKUnfortunately, children's book illustrator Maurice Sendak passed away this morning. The author of "Where the Wild Things Are" died in Danbury, Connecticut at the age of 83 following a stroke. Here's his interview with Stephen Colbert on "The Colbert Report."

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