How Worried Are Joss Whedon, 'Avengers' Cast About Sequel's Sky-High Expectations?

The assemblage of Iron Man, Thor, Cap, Hulk, and company in 2012’s The Avengers wasn’t just a smash with fans. It wasn’t a mere smash hit, either. The film tallied $623 million at the North American box office (and more than $1.5 billion worldwide) to become the third-highest-grossing movie OF ALL TIME, right behind those two James Cameron juggernauts, Avatar and Titanic.

So you’ve got to imagine writer-director Joss Whedon and his merry band of heroes are feeling a wee bit of pressure to duplicate that feat with the sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Right?

“I’m actually very good at shutting it out, for a while,” Whedon told Yahoo Movies in a recent interview, which you can watch above. “And then every once in a while it comes crashing down and you’re like, 'Oh my god, the responsibility. I can never make another decision!’ But you plow through.”

What about his superheroes — are they sweating over ticket sales? A common theme emerges when the film’s stars asked if they are worried about the money: Nope, that’s for Joss Whedon and the brass at Marvel to fret over.

That sentiment was nicely summed up by Chris Hemsworth, who plays the hammer-wielding Asgardian god Thor: “Fortunately we didn’t have to navigate that ship. That was Joss and the Marvel guys… I was thankful for that. Thankful I didn’t have any of that responsibility.”

“If you really thought about the amount of money being spent and the amount of money people are hoping to make, you wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning,” said Paul Bettany, who transitions from a voice role as JARVIS, Tony Stark’s A.I. assistant, to the humanoid Vision, the android Avenger, in Ultron. “That’s for studio executives to panic about.”

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens May 1.

Watch Joss Whedon walk us through a 'sexy’ encounter between Hulk and Black Widow: