introducing the individual Avengers while one shot, tantalisingly, shows Captain America square of against an enraged Thor. It ends with a neat verbal conflict as Loki tells Tony Stark, “I have an army,” only for Stark to reply, “We have a Hulk.” Cut to an impressive shot of the new RufaloHulk roaring in anger, and the lights come up. Hiddleston reaches forward and squeezes Evans on the shoulder. They like what they see. “I saw that line everywhere on the internet afterwards,” says Feige of, “We have a Hulk.” “I told Joss, ‘It’s in the zeitgeist.’ They just pour out of him. We have more great lines that fell out of the draft than most movies have in their draft. Captain America may even order Hulk to smash at one point, which may be the greatest line ever put on film...”
T
his is nothing new for those who have been following Whedon’s career. The creator of Buffy, Angel, Serenity and Firefly, he’s long exhibited a knack for a droll one-liner or ten, something that’s in evidence when Empire catches up with him on the phone a few months after our set visit (during which Whedon was zipping around the set, understandably too busy to chat). When we ask him about his mental state in the middle of post-production, he says, “It’s like a sea. I can’t see either shore. I’m pretty sure I will drown. Don’t even call me Ishmael.” When we quiz him about the decision to convert the movie to 3D in post, he refers to a test he shot with Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård and Jackson, for Thor’s post-credits sting: “It was like directing Soviet television in the ’50s. I went in saying, ‘I will shoot everything 3D, I will not do conversions,’ and I came out going, ‘So, tell me again about this conversion!’” When we wonder if, working on a movie where the major characters were untouchable, his penchant for leftfield plot-turns and character deaths has been stymied, his reply comes laced with sarcasm: “It was hard killing Captain
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TEN YEARS OF THE MCU
America. But you’re going to find it hilarious when it happens.” You wonder how comfortable a creative powerhouse like Whedon felt working within the Marvel machine. Surely he wouldn’t be happy being treated as another safe pair of hands who can make sure it all looks and sounds good while the top techies handle all the running/jumping/exploding? You could say that, like the Bond films, the overarching vision for Marvel’s movies comes from the studio, not from the guy barking orders through a megaphone. “We are incredibly hands-on in a way that a lot of filmmakers have no interest in dealing with,” admits Feige. But that was something Whedon was fine with. “You know, they have their parameters, but what’s wonderful is, they don’t change. They don’t panic and go, ‘Maybe it’s a romantic comedy!’ They’re the least intrusive and most collaborative studio I’ve ever worked at.” Feige, and former Marvel boss Avi Arad, had tried to get Whedon to direct Iron Man, while there was talk of X-Men 3 at one point, and when Feige kept running into Whedon at various food haunts around West LA, he asked him to come in and take a look at the Avengers script they were developing, written by Zak Penn. “You make it sound like I was stalking Kevin,” says Whedon. Perhaps he was stalking you? “I like that version better.” Whedon wasn’t a fan of Penn’s version of the Avengers, and in the course of giving Marvel notes, the studio asked him to come on as writer and start from scratch. Soon he was on board as director, too, for the first time since 2005’s Serenity. (Incidentally, Marvel’s choice of director for Iron Man 3 is another genius wordsmith who hasn’t directed since 2005: Shane Black.) It’s a film larger than anything Whedon has ever done before (and larger than most, full stop), but — apart from the odd feeling of drowning and possible insanity — he’s handling it well. “The experience doesn’t feel any diferent from when I was running three TV shows and my son was born. Really the same. Not so huge.” And what about the pressure of handling this $300-million behemoth, this once-in-a-generation blockbuster, about meeting fanboy and stockholders’ expectations, about delivering a comicbook movie that can go toe-to-toe with The Dark Knight Rises? Does it ever get to Whedon? “Well, as far as the pressure goes, they don’t put it on me,” reflects Whedon. He pauses. “And I don’t feel it. It ain’t my money. I don’t care!”
Right: Extra-terrestrial shapeshifters the Chitauri. Below: New Avengers Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and (bottom) Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), with Hulk.