The Trivia of: The Avengers

This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast/crew for a comic book movie, or most movies for that matter: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, director Joss Whedon, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Iron Man 2, and Iron Man which each had four nominees a piece.

Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo. Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part.

Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cobie Smulders screen tested for the role of Agent Maria Hill. Smulders was eventually cast.

Lou Ferrigno voices the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk and its subsequent three TV specials, and he voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (he was seen in Hulk but it was a cameo role as a security guard, which he repeated in The Incredible Hulk ). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.

Director Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story 'Gifted' for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men: The Last Stand.

According to director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over 3 hours long. About 30 minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America). Whedon revealed that one of these scenes involved Rogers struggling to adjust to the modern world in his Brooklyn apartment and another revealed Steve Rogers' reunion with Peggy Carter, his love interest from Captain America: The First Avenger. Chris Evans has since announced that the deleted scenes with Captain America will be used for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

With Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film, he is now the second actor after Hugh Jackman (who has appeared in all X-men movies) to play the same comic book superhero in five different movies. Jackman will appaear for the 6th and 7th time in 2013's The Wolverine and the new X-Men film in 2014.

Jackson plays Nick Fury in: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and in The Avengers.

Jackman plays Wolverine in: X-Men, X2, X-Men 3 The Last Stand, X-Men Orgins Wolverine, X-Men First Class, The Wolverine and X-Men Days of Future Past

The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the USA. It tied with Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (19 days) and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the USA (14 days).

Stan Lee: creator of such Marvel comics as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many others, is the old man being interviewed at the end of the New York battle montage who says: "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!" and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. He also appeared in a deleted scene: after witnessing a waitress flirt with Steve Rogers, Lee's character says, "Ask for her number, you moron!"

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