Joss Whedon Explains 'Avengers' Deleted Scenes, Talks 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Workload And More

Joss Whedon Explains ‘Avengers’ Deleted Scenes, Talks ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Workload And More

Joss Whedonis officially Marvel’s main man. After completing the studio’s most successful film to date,The Avengers(back in theaterstomorrow),the writer/director signed onto not only direct the2015 sequelbutdevelop an ABC TV showbased onS.H.I.E.L.D.and to just generally have his hands in whatever pie he wants:Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, you name it.

Seems like a lot of work for just one man and, in an interview withVulture, Whedon discussed how he plans on stretching himself over all these properties. He also explained why theAvengersscenes that came out this week –the alternative openingandCaptain America intro– were deleted. Read his quotes about this stuff, as well as anAvengers 2tease, after the jump.

First up, a huge thanks toVulturefor the interview. Head there to read the whole thing.

We’ll start withThe Avengers 2. Obviously, Whedon won’t say anything specific about it, but he did say the following:

[The upcoming Marvel slate] is like a tapas menus of projects that excite me, in addition to theAvengerssequel, which I’m excited for because I’m incredibly excited about the next story that I’m going to tell. For me, it’s a huge win.

Whedon will be working on not only theS.H.I.E.L.Dshow, which was recently greenlit, but other movies as well. Whedon says he has total freedom:

Itisunbelievably daunting, especially because I don’t want to lose sight of all the other things I have on my docket and in my heart. So, it’s going to be an insane few years, but I feel ready for that. It’s an unholy amount of productivity, but as long as I give it all I can, it’s a good thing. What’s great is that the deal with Marvel is nonspecific, so I will give all I can, but the moment I can’t, I just walk away. The moment I say, “You know, I’d like to help more on this project, but I need this time forThe Avengers,” there’s no obligation. It’s not like, “You must spend this amount of time on this movie.” It’s as much as it needs to be.

And while, again, he wouldn’t get intoS.H.I.E.L.D.specifics, he said this about it:

The important thing to me is that we know what the show is. We love what it is. It came together very organically, so when we went in to pitch [to Marvel], it wasn’t like,We’re trying to find this because you want a TV show, it was,Check this out. And that’s a good way to walk in a room.

Finally, here’s why he decided to cut the Maria HillAvengersbookends. It makes a lot of sense:

Two factors. One: The movie was three hours long. Two: Audiences didn’t respond to it as well in the movie as I think they would as a DVD extra. Most of them didn’t know who this character was or what the context was, and they were like,Uhhh, I don’t know why I’m supposed to be personally involved in this character I don’t know.The rollout to the Avengers getting to Loki was so gradual that people were getting restless. I thought Cobie nailed it, and the reason I thought it was necessary is because I was trying to make a war movie and I wanted to give context that something bad had happened in the past. In a war movie, you don’t know who’s going to live or die, but you do know that this war happened and that [the characters] are going to be in a dire circumstance, and I wanted to create that atmosphere. I was able to get what I needed without doing that. It was tough. I hated cutting it.

And the Captain America scene, though he really doesn’t focus too much on that character:

I hated cutting the Captain America stuff with the waitress. At least I was able to call Ashley Johnson [who plays the waitress] and tell her that all her stuff was still inMuch Ado About Nothing, since she had been cut out ofDollhouse, she had been cut out ofThe Avengers: “I swear you’re still in the Shakespeare movie!” You know, those bits had seemed very personal to me, and part of doingMuch Adowas that I could go back toThe Avengersand say, “Oh, it’s not about me. Even though its my film, it’s about the Avengers. I am less important than the needs of the film.

If you head toVulture, Whedon has even more to say about his work at Marvel. A lot of it is quoted above but on the site he also discusses the success ofThe Avengers, howS.H.I.E.L.D.will work for non-fans and more.