“Strictly speaking as a fan, who wouldn’t want to see [an Avengers movie],” Quesada enthused, adding that for his money, “who wouldn’t want to see just two of the characters teaming up…like a Spider-Man/Wolverine movie,” before placing the caveat that the chances of that happening would be “pretty astronomical.” But with the company controlling more of its own characters under the Marvel Studios label than it ever has before, an Avengers film is arguably more likely than a two-character team-up. And while Quesada wouldn’t shed any detailed insight into the likelihood of it happening, he did offer up his own dream roster for an Avengers big-budget flick. “It would be Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man,” Quesada stated. “You can have anyone outside of that, but if you had those three characters, you have a tremendous Avengers movie. Those three characters are sort of the Holy Trinity here at Marvel.” - 11/7/07, Joe Quesada speaking with MTv [link] 
Kevin Feige speaking at the Comic-Con Marvel Movie Panel - "The final question of the Q&A was whether or not an Avengers movie might ever occur. Feige asked if the audience if they wanted to see that, and received loud applause for a response. He smiled and said that something is in the works." - 7/29/07, CBR [link]
"The idea that what's preventing certain characters from crossing over in the past is the fact that they were all divvied up at different studios. There were big giant gates in between them and they couldn't play in the same sandbox. Now that we have Hulk and Thor and Captain and Iron Man and Ant Man, it certainly would indicate to me that it might be fun to see them all in the same sandbox at some point." - 6/15/07, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige as reported by Rotten Tomatoes [link]
"To me, the thing I loved as a kid was the way [of] the Marvel universe," says Penn. "The thing that was inspiring to me, and I do think there's a correlative with Greek Mythology, was the way it was not just a comic book or a story, but it was a whole universe that existed. And as a kid you could imagine, 'Oh, all these superheroes are out there and they all live in this same world and when one of them needs help the other one goes to do it.' It was a whole universe that existed. And now that Marvel actually owns all these properties, one of the things that convinced me to come and be a part of The Hulk, and I'm supposed to write an Avengers movie actually, is the idea of helping them create a cinematic universe not unlike what they've done with Star Trek or the Star Wars movies to a lesser extent, where this is the universe that exists and you can tell stories in any part of that universe. Captain Picard can show up in a movie with Captain Kirk. Wouldn't it be great if you could get into that [with Marvel]?" - 5/3/07, IGN.com
"Some time after Marvel Entertainment unleashes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and a few other choice superheroes as stars of their own feature films, the company intends to release a live-action The Avengers. Set to pen the screenplay is Zak Penn, the writer behind the last two X-Men movies from 20th Century Fox and Marvel. Executives spoke briefly about their "Avengers" plan Wednesday during a presentation to Wall Street analysts at the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Pasadena. The comic book The Avengers began as a team consisting of superheroes Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk. Later, Captain America and a host of others joined. Marvel calls the Avengers Earth's mightiest heroes." - 9/13/06, Hollywood Reporter
"The last announcement [Avengers film] goes back to the Marvel films presentation at the recent San Diego Comic-Con, where it was noted that it was no coincidence that Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor were leading the Marvel self-financed slate." - 8/11/2006, Newarama
