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Marvel has announced that a series of movies is coming out, leading up to the Avengers movie.

Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Ant-Man (2010), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), The First Avenger: Captain America (2011), and The Avengers (2012).

There will be cameos in all of these movies from characters in the other movies to establish that these films are in the same universe.

According to Jon Favreau, Marvel are primarily after Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ant Man and Iron Man for the movie. However Wasp is unlikely to be missing, Don Cheadle has been contracted for the movie (presumably helping out as either War Machine or a back-up Iron Man), and Scarlett Johansson is set to play Black Widow in both Iron Man II and The Avengers. Hawkeye is also rumored to appear in Iron Man 2, and it's possible he will be in The Avengers as well, seeing as his character was a long-time Avenger in the comics.

Up-date: As of 11/30/09, actor Jeremy Renner is being linked to the role of Clint Barton/Hawkeye. He has spoken to "Empire" magazine and superherohype.com about playing the role, confirming he has had "talks" with Marvel Studios. Things are looking good for fans of Marvel's hot-headed archer.

As a side note, in the comics, when Hawkeye joined the Avengers, he was joined by Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Pietro (Quicksilver) Maximoff, the twin daughter and son of X-Men arch nemesis Magneto. But not only have there been no rumors about those two characters but as mutants, they fall into a grey area as to whether Marvel Studios or 20th Century Fox (who owns the rights to the X-Men characters) would have the rights to use them in a movie.

Discussions have been minimal on this subject as of now, but recent reports have many Marvel sources, including the writers of Iron Man, as well as Louis Leterrier in his Director's commentary to the Incredible Hulk movie, saying that the villain should be none other than one of the Avengers: the Hulk.

If Hulk is used, a smart thing to do would be to include another villain that would be pulling the strings. This could be anyone from Loki (Thor's brother and enemy), Mandarin (Iron Man's arch-nemesis), or Red Skull (Captain America's arch-nemesis). Though that is just pure speculation. The ending of the Incredible Hulk movie adds weight to the expectation that SHIELD is assembling the Avengers apparently to contain the Hulk problem, as a spillover of the Super Soldier program; in this case there would be no need for an external villain to manipulate either Hulk or the Avengers to fight each other.

In the comics, Thor's brother Loki manipulated the Hulk into destroying a bridge and endangering (and saving) the lives of hundreds of train passengers. When the news of the Hulk's destruction of the bridge goes out it is decided that the Fantastic Four should be contacted in order to stop the Hulk but Loki diverts the signal from reaching its intended target in order to have the signal reach Thor, so that he would be destroyed by the Hulk; however, not only does Thor receive the signal but so do Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. When they all come together to stop the Hulk, they initially get in each others' way in their attempts to stop him, but eventually it is discovered that Loki was behind all this and they decide to join forces in order to stop him. They decided to remain together as a team and the Wasp suggests the name "The Avengers".

It would be logical (but not completely necessary) for the movie to follow a similar story. Especially considering the currents rumors of the Hulk being a villain in the movie.

That is currently unknown. However, all of the solo movies which will tie together in this movie finally have their own directors...

Iron Man & Iron Man 2 - Jon Favreau

The Incredible Hulk - Louis Leterrier

The First Avenger: Captain America - Joe Johnston

Thor - Kenneth Branagh

Ant-Man - Edgar Wright

So far none of these directors except for Jon Favreau has expressed interest in directing (http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/01/03/iron-man-helmer-jon-favreau-wants-to-assemble-avengers-flick/). According to Ain't It Cool News, the film was delayed partly because Marvel Studios wants Favreau to direct and the delay will allow him enough time to make the film.

Nope! The Fantastic Four's film rights is held by 20th Century Fox and not by Marvel themselves. This rules out a Wolverine (also Fox) or Spider-Man (Sony) possibility.

Casting and financial problems according to Iron Man 1 & 2 director, Jon Favreau.

Unless something personal comes up, yes.

Stan Lee has a cameo in every movie based on a character he created except X2: X-Men United because at the time he felt he should only have a role in the first movie of each character's series. He has since changed his mind.

The Avengers were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Yes.

From now on, all Marvel Studios movies are part of the same universe, one of the many parallel universes in the Marvel Multiverse.

"Blade" is made by New Line Cinema. "X-Men", "Daredevil" and "Fantastic Four" are made by 20th Century Fox. "Spider-Man" and "Ghost Rider" are made by Columbia Pictures. "The Punisher" is made by Lions Gate. These movies are not part of the Marvel Movie Universe. This is why the Fantastic Four won't appear in this movie.