The Avengers : Age of Ultron

Joss Whedon is hard at work directing "S.H.I.E.L.D." right now, but when he’s not on the Helicarrier, he’s equally busy toiling away at the script and story of "The Avengers 2."

When MTV News spoke with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about "Iron Man 3" and beyond, he gave us a sense of where things stand with the hotly-awaited "Avengers" sequel.

"It’s still early days," he said, "but I told [Whedon] after reading the first sketch outline he delivered — and there’s a lot of work still to do, he has to sit down and turn this into a movie — but there are already seven things in there that are worth the price of admission alone."

Don’t bother asking Feige what those seven things are — believe me, I tried; the man is a vault. But Feige insists that some of "the seven" won’t make sense to fans until the upcoming Marvel movies like "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" hit theaters.

In the meantime, Feige said that Marvelites can expect the groundwork for "Avengers 2" to start as early as "Iron Man 3," even if they won’t quite know what to look for.

"I would say that the exercise of this film is very much standalone, more so than any ’Iron Man’ film since the first one. But because we are in Phase Two and we’re heading towards another ’Avengers’ movie, there’s certainly a road that’s being paved — you just might not notice it," he said regarding how much "Avengers" teasing we’ll see in the "Iron Man" threequel. "While you’re driving on the road, not knowing where it’s going, you might not realize that there are road signs and signals and lane changes that we’re setting up now — they might not be readily apparent the first time you see the movie."

As for how "Iron Man 3" will help set up "Avengers 2," Feige teased, "In this one, it has less to do with any sort of larger S.H.I.E.L.D. or cosmic overlay, but much more about Tony, his frame of mind, his viewpoint and the things he wants to pursue."

Though his lips are sealed regarding the specifics of Marvel’s future, Feige is clearly energized about Phase Two. "It’s pretty exciting to be this early out and already have things that I could pitch you on in a room — if you weren’t a journalist who was going to print all of this — and you would go, ’Oh my god, that’s going to be awesome,’" he said.