After two massive Avengers movies, Joss Whedon is looking forward to pursuing other projects. Cough, Doctor Horrible, cough. Who said that?
There’s no doubt that Joss Whedon’s quirky, personal vision for The Avengers (2012) accounts for a lot of Marvel’s success. Without him, who knows if their superhero franchise would have gained the momentum it needed to realize Marvel’s spectacular Phase 2 line-up?
But now, Whedon is ready to move on, gearing up to leave Marvel behind (at least for the time being) after Age of Ultron.
Speaking about the decision to leave in an interview with Empire Magazine, Whedon says, “I couldn’t imagine doing this again.”
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer showrunner calls the experience of directing the Avengers movies, “enormously hard,” and he is itching to get back to creating projects that are “completely my own.”
While nothing is official yet, at this point, “it’s very doubtful that I would take on the two-part Infinity War movie that would eat up the next four years of my life.”
Of course the fact that Avengers: Age of Ultron will probably be Joss Whedon’s last Marvel movie shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, Captain America directors Joe and Anthony Russo are already rumored to be helming the Infinity Wars.
“I obviously still want to be a part of the Marvel Universe – I love these guys,” Whedon clarifies. “But it ain’t easy. This year has been more like running three shows than any year of my life. It is bonkers.”
So what might Joss Whedon get up to when he’s not chained to the Marvel desk anymore? We’re sure there’s pressure from all sides to revisit Buffy (perhaps swooping in like a superhero and saving the sketchy reboot?), Firefly and Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
But maybe Whedon’s sick of the pressure. Maybe he’ll throw himself into another indie project, like Much Ado About Nothing… or maybe he’ll just go to Disneyland for a year and chill out – we wouldn’t blame him!