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Calm, deep breath - but Jon Favreau might have just dropped the biggest hint about The Avengers movie yet.

In a recent tweeting session, Favreau was asked if Iron Man 2 takes place before or after the Incredible Hulk - to which he sharply replied 'before'.

Now we know what your thinking, what's the big deal with that?

Hardly matters right?

Wrong!

Cast your mind back to the end of The Incredible Hulk movie, which ended with Tony Stark recruiting General Ross for his "team" - and everything becomes a lot more clear.

Favreau's tweet is not just some throwaway comment but points towards something much bigger, and the only logical conclusion is The Avengers.

The permutations suggest's that Iron Man 2 will possibly feature members of the Avengers putting the "team" together.

Couple that with the fact we've already seen Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury in the official Iron Man 2 trailer and you've got excitement levels at death con three!

But is this all getting a bit complicated?

Will we really see all those superheroes, played by the same actors (Captain America hasn’t even been made yet!), in a big Marvel movie?

It would take a gargantuan effort to pull that one off. Plus, Edward Norton threw his toys out of the pram during the post-production on Louis Leterrier’s film and refused to do publicity and didn’t much like the film.

Well, characters have been crossing over into each others movies, so it better be for something other than a nice “reference” to the Marvel universe.

So will a big, bad Marvel smackdown be on its way in the near future?

Is there a grand scheme?

We want answers, godammit!