In a recent interview conducted by Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk) at the Tribeca Film Festival, Joss Whedon confronts the controversy surrounding the Avengers sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
While most consider the movie as a whole to be quite the accomplishment, packed with plenty of action, laughs, and reeling a whopping $1.4 billion at the box office, the general concensus is that it was a dissapointment considering the bar that was left so high by the first Avengers movie. Many of the film's elements were noticably similar to its predecessor and there was a definite strain to the overall narrative with its countless attempts to plug in references to other films, as well as set-up many of Marvel's upcoming projects.
Whedon has already gone on record saying many of the issues he ran into during production was Disney's restrictions and guidelines forced upon him by the studio in order to protect their investment in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ultimately, however, he appears to take the blame for the end result himself. In regards to the mixed reviews that followed AoU, he had this to say:
"I sort of created a narrative wherein I had not quite accomplished it…and I think that did a disservice to the movie and to the studio and to myself. The fact that Marvel gave me that opportunity twice is so bonkers…and the fact that I [came] off of it feeling like a miserable failure is also bonkers, but not in a cute way."
Joss Whedon has completely turned his back on future Marvel film projects, leaving the next two Avengers sequels, Avengers: Infinity War- Parts I & II, in the very capable hands of Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors, Joe and Anthony Russo. Currently, Whedon is involved in the MCU solely because of his commitment to ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but time will tell if he'll ever be willing to take the reigns on another Marvel movie again.
