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Kevin Feige has explained why Ant-Man is excluded from "The Avengers" despite the fact that the hero is a regular member of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the original comic books. The Marvel Studios President of Production claimed that the exclusion was made because director Edgar Wright was too slow in delivering a standalone "Ant-Man" movie.

"Edgar's still working on that [Ant-Man] project, and it's closer than ever," Feige told Toronto Sun. "But it's been eight years we've been working with him, and we finally decided we couldn't keep putting more people in. If Ant-Man had come out four years ago, it would certainly have been part of the puzzle."

During the interview with the news site, Feige also revealed a spoilerish detail that one of the regular characters in Marvel comics will get killed in "The Avengers". Without mentioning who is that character, Feige said that the plot was actually his idea. "We wanted the audience to understand the stakes and not just assume because it's a franchise, no one will ever get hurt," he reasoned.

"So I was watching J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' movie, and I'm a big 'Star Trek' nerd so this may have hit me more than other people, but when they killed Spock's mom, I was like, 'We have to do that!' " Feige added.

Slated for a May 4 U.S. release, "Avengers" will see Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and The Hulk teaming up to defeat the God of Mischief, Loki. Lining up in the cast ensemble are Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson.