Joss Whedon had a “terrible time” working on ‘Avengers’ sequel
It takes an enormous amount of strength to do any project that’s tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since the comic book titan looks at their projects the same way that most look at episodes of a television show, it always comes back to tying in different themes from one movie so that they could be paid off in the next one or build up to something even grander later down the line. Although Joss Whedon showed he had what it took to help get the franchise off the ground with the Avengers franchise, he wasn’t always satisfied with the final product.
When settling in for the first Avengers film, Whedon made some of the biggest heroes of the time iconic, with dialogue that had a playful back and forth among heroes like Iron Man, Black Widow and Captain America. Since everything worked wonders on the first film, it was only logical to give Whedon control to do the same thing again for the follow-up.
Checking in with the main team after a long time away, Avengers: Age of Ultron was the natural progression from the first film, turning pieces of the team against one another before having those feelings come to a head later in Captain America: Civil War. While making the film, Whedon confessed that the project got away from him in the editing process.
When talking about the movie later on, Whedon did have a few regrets about some of the creative choices going on in the film, telling The Independent: “I’m tied, and I had a terrible time. I was so beaten down by the process. Some of that was conflicting with Marvel, which is inevitable. A lot of it was about my own work, and I was also exhausted.” For any Marvel fan who has seen what was to come later, it’s easy to see where some of the company’s meddling may have crept in.
Partway through the movie, Thor visits a sacred pool that gives him visions of what fans would later learn to be The Infinity Stones, which would play a pivotal role in the Infinity War saga a few years later. While the scene works as a sort-of fan service moment to get Chris Hemsworth to remove his shirt, it’s also a bit of a mess from a storytelling standpoint, as if Thor showed up in this cave just to make a teaser trailer for the next chapter in the movie saga.
Whedon wasn’t the only one, with James Gunn having some issues with the way they handled the Guardians of the Galaxy gang in Avengers: Infinity War. Then again, Whedon did manage to sprinkle in some of his trademark comic book moments into the movie, including a great action scene towards the beginning of the film, culminating in the heroes coming together in a single shot, evoking the look of a comic strip leaping off the page. Some of Whedon’s trademarks do start to undermine certain parts of the film as well, with the constant emphasis on jokes and quips making none of the superheroes seem like they’re in any real danger.
The tone of the later instalments would radically shift after this film as well, with Civil War directing confronting the damage and lives lost after the battle that goes on in this film. However, the comedic scenes have one highlight in Captain America nearly lifting Thor’s hammer before bowing out, leading to him wielding it by himself at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Whedon would later bring his style to the world of DC with Justice League, but this was the first time his style started to clash with what Marvel wanted.
