Those of you who thought 'The Avengers' gave Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) the short shrift will be pleased to know that director Joss Whedon has some big things planned for the two assassins in 'The Avengers 2.'

Via MTV's Splashpage, Whedon has been talking up the characters who he feels were a bit neglected during the first assemblage of the Avengers. (We'd argue that Black Widow was suitably represented, but there's no denying Hawkeye was a sideline presence at best.) Speaking at Comic-Con (via Screen Rant), Whedon talked about how big the scope of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' is, and managed to give Hawkeye some love:

It’s very much a global Avengers film. A lot of the movie has to do with their place not just in America, but the world. Part of the fun for me, definitely this time around, is writing Hawkeye. He did get possessed pretty early by a bad guy and had to walk around all scowly for most of the movie so now it’s nice to actually have the character there and see him interact with the other guys.”

Whedon, during a Q&A session with Nerd HQ, then spoke encouragingly about his plans to have Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) figure more prominently in the sequel:

Natasha is a huge part of the sequel because you do want to concentrate on the people who don't have their own franchises. Although she in 'Cap 2,' [and] she's great. She was the most fun for me because she's not a hero, you know, and it's something that I read—and I feel bad that I can't remember who wrote the book—but it's in one of the books explaining, 'These guys are heroes, you are a spy. It's a different thing—it's a different skill set—and you don't have their moral high ground or any of that good stuff.' And that just makes her so interesting to me. So yeah, the stuff I've got going on with her in the second one is killer."

The only real question is, if he's giving even more screentime to Hawkeye and Black Widow, does that really leave room for further development of all the others - especially when he also has Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch joining the gang? It's going to be a lot to juggle, but if anyone can do it, Whedon can. (He'll just need about 3 hours to do it in.)

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