Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon has a lot to say about the lack of female superhero movies being released in Hollywood, explaining the phenomenon in an industry of “stupid people.”

Director Joss Whedon recently confirmed that he won’t be directing any more Avengers films after Age of Ultron, and while we’re glad to see the Russo brothers taking the reigns, we’ll definitely miss Whedon’s ability of speaking his mind about what’s really happening in Hollywood.

While speaking with Digital Spy, the director says that there’s a “phenomenon in the industry that we call ‘stupid people.’ There is genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny that goes on.”

If that wasn’t enough, he steps it up a bit further, saying, “Oh, they [female superheroes] don’t work because of these two bad ones that were made eight years ago, there’s always an excuse.” We assume he’s pointing towards female superhero films like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Halle Berry’s Catwoman, which failed to perform at the box office.

The Avengers’ director even takes aim at his own studio next, saying, “Marvel is in a position of making a statement simply by making [a female-led] movie, which I think would be a good thing to do. But it has to be a good movie, it has to be a good character, and most of the best characters in Marvel are owned by Fox, let’s face it!”

We’re glad to see the wildly popular director, who is known for getting his start by directing the female-led Buffy the Vampire Slayer, pushing this major issue into the spotlight. The lack of female superheroes is a glaring issue that studios say they’re trying to fix, but don’t seem to be getting very far as of yet.

With Mockingjay – Part 1 breaking records and becoming the highest grossing film at the domestic box office this year, and Catching Fire holding the title for the previous year, it’s been proven that audiences want to see strong female leads, and will head to theaters in droves to support them.

While Marvel has announced that Captain Marvel will be released in 2018, Warner Bros. is actually getting a solo female superhero film out before them, with Wonder Woman’s release date being set for June 23, 2017. All of that depends on how well Justice League does though, so we’ll have to wait and see if female superheroes end up getting the chance they deserve.

It’s great to have someone like Whedon shedding light on the lack of female-led superhero films, and we hope that writers and directors take notice, and more importantly that studios start realizing that there is a massive audience for female superhero films. This is also seen in Whedon’s films, where Scarlett Johansson has become wildy popular for her role of Black Widow.

Let us know what you think about Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon taking aim at studios for being antiquated and old-fashioned in terms of female superhero films.