'Avengers' director and current Marvel Studios creative head muckity-muck Joss Whedon has a knack for killing off beloved characters. You need to look to further than 'Buffy,' Firefly,' 'Angel' and, of course, 'The Avengers' for evidence. But, as he prepares to shoot 'Avengers 2: Age of Ultron' in a few months, will Whedon take things up a notch and, gulp, kill one of the Avengers?

"Maybe..."

Whedon was profiled by Entertainment Weekly for their recent cover story and they minced no words as they asked the 'Avengers 2' director point blank whether he had any plans to kill off one of the Avengers in the upcoming sequel. His answer was decidedly vague. "Umm...maybe." Do explain, Mr. Whedon:

I’d have to have a really good reason, a really great sequence for [Marvel execs] to go, ‘We’ll cut off a potential franchise, that’s fine!’ They know as any good studio does, that without some stakes, some real danger, how involved can we get? We don’t just rule it out across the board, but neither is the mission statement ‘Who can we kill?’ We try to build the story organically and go, ‘How hard can we make it on these people?’ You go to the movies to see people you love suffer - that’s why you go to the movies.

Obviously, if Whedon were planning on killing off Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor or Captain America, he wouldn't go blabbing about it to an Entertainment Weekly reporter two years before the movie comes out. (The Coulson death in the original 'Avengers' was so well-protected, we still remember the collective *gasp* in the movie theater when it happened.) But, it does seem like it's a possibility he and Marvel have discussed.

Now, if an Avenger were to die in 'Avengers 2,' who would it be? Smart money is on Hawkeye, who never really had "franchise potential" anyway (and actor Jeremy Renner publicly voiced displeasure with his role in the first film). Hawkeye is also one of the easiest characters to kill because he doesn't have any real superpowers beyond his sharpshooting abilities.

If we're looking even further into the future, we have to think there's a very strong chance Iron Man dies (sacrificing himself to save the world?) in 'Avengers 3' as a exit for star Robert Downey, Jr. and a potential introduction of a new Iron Man. After all, that franchise needs to live on and instead of just pretending a new actor is Iron Man, let Tony Stark die and have a new character take over the Iron Man-tle.

What do you think? Should Joss Whedon kill off any of the Avengers? If so, who should it be?

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