There was one major death in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the fallen hero was someone we only just met.

As those who’ve seen The Avengers sequel know, Quicksilver (wonderfully played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) died at the end of Age of Ultron, after he and his sister Scarlet Witch decided they believed in the Avengers team. Quicksilver died only after protecting Hawkeye from bullets.

It was a great scene even if it meant losing Quicksilver, but now we’re learning that director Joss Whedon was at one point considering letting him survive.

Speaking to Empire this week, Whedon confirmed that they shot an alternate ending in which Quicksilver survived the attack and stood with the Avengers team at the end.

“We did actually shoot him in the last scene, in an outfit with his sister,” he said. “And we did shoot him waking up from his, ‘Ahh! I didn’t really die from these 47 bullet wounds!’ but the intent was always that we were going to earn this and then you have to stand by it.”

Whedon noted that the character had to stay dead because they didn’t want to mislead viewers like they did with Agent Coulson, who was revived for the Marvel TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. “It did take the truth out of [Coulson’s death],” he said, “And I’m responsible for having done that. I’m as guilty of bringing people back to life as I am of killing them.”

Interestingly, Marvel head Kevin Feige said in a recent interview with MTV that they only shot Quicksilver’s apparent survival so as to throw people off from spoiling the truth pre-release. Whedon’s comments with Empire, however, seem to suggest that that wasn’t the entire intention.

Are you glad there was at least one person who died in ‘Age of Ultron?

One common complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they rarely kill off characters because they will always need them for future films (big heroes = big box offices!). In Quicksilver’s case, he was killed off before he had a chance to become too big of a player.

Last week we told you that an extended edition of The Avengers: Age of Ultron may be making it to DVD/Blu-ray later this year. If true, hopefully they’ll include this alternate ending — it’d be great to see Quicksilver with an enhanced appearance (like the one his twin sister received) and standing with the Avengers at the very end.