Joss Whedon's inspiration behind 'The Avengers: Age of Ultron' comes from 'The Godfather Part II'.

The 49-year-old director admitted the 1974 American crime film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which is both a sequel and prequel to the 1972 original, was a ''guiding star'' for the forthcoming sequel to 2012's hit 'The Avengers'.

'The Godfather Part II' received great critical acclaim when it was released and was nominated for eleven Academy Awards in 1975, including the first sequel to win for Best Picture.

Whedon told French website AlloCiné: ''The model I'm always trying to build from, or my guiding star, is 'The Godfather: Part II', where a ton has happened in between and it's a very different movie [from Part I], but you don't need any information.

''It's there in the film about what's happened since, what's different, and why is this a different film; why is it a different kind of structure, and why is it darker. It's all there, you're in the vernacular of the first movie and you're just ready to pick up in this new place, and hopefully that's what will happen with my movie.''

Whedon will be careful about how he structures the highly anticipated film and although there might be nods to other superhero adventures he is planning on creating something which audiences can understand without having watched the original.

He added: ''I can't assume that everybody went to see 'Thor: The Dark World', 'Captain America' and 'Iron Man 3' in between. I have to go from one movie to the next and be true to what's happened [in the previous movies], but not be slavish to it.

''The events of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' will definitely affect the world of 'Avengers 2'.

''But at the end of the day, I have to make my movie assuming that people will only have seen the first one, or possibly not even seen the first one.''

'The Avengers' grossed $1.5 billion dollars worldwide putting it third in the all-time movie grossing list, with only 'Avatar' and 'Titanic' above it.

'The Avengers: Age of Ultron' is set for release in May 2015.