Since “Avengers: Infinity War” dominated the world this weekend, it’s always fun to look back at the beginning. Thrillist has a very comprehensive look at the making of the first “Avengers” film, which broke records when it was released in 2012. And even though, in hindsight, the film stands as one of the better Marvel Cinematic Universe films, it was far from smooth sailing during production.
Filmmaker Joss Whedon was signed on to co-write and direct the film, and by all accounts, he did a fine job. However, early on in the production of the film, there was a bit of drama about who actually wrote the script. Credited to both Whedon and Zak Penn, the script was hardly a collaboration, according to Joss.
“I started at square 1 on the script. I mean, straight up. I don’t wanna rag on it, but I fought that credit. I was very upset about it. I know how the Guild works, first guy on a movie and all that, but I’ve never had good luck with arbitrations,” revealed Whedon. “I read [Penn’s script] one time, and I’ve never seen it since. I was like, ‘Nope. There’s nothing here.’ There was no character connection. There was a line in the stage directions that said, apropos of nothing, ‘And then they all walk towards the camera in slow motion because you have to have that.’ Yeah, well, no: You have to earn that.”
Penn remarked, “We could have collaborated more, but that was not his choice. He wanted to do it his way, and I respect that. I mean, it’s not like on the ‘Hulk,’ where I got replaced by the lead actor.”
But that doesn’t mean that Whedon’s early drafts were perfect. After concerns that Scarlett Johansson wouldn’t be available for filming, Whedon had the Wasp as a primary character. “…I wrote a huge bunch of pages starring The Wasp. That was not useful. I also worried that one British character actor was not enough to take on Earth’s mightiest heroes, and that we’d feel like we were rooting for the overdog. So I wrote a huge draft with Ezekiel Stane, Obadiah Stane’s son, in it.”
Ultimately, even after they got the script in place, there was a general unease on the set, as well. Whedon goes on to describe how the studio had concerns about what he was filming, primarily when it came to the climactic battle in New York City.
“It happened to be the worst time of filming [shooting the “Battle of New York”]. The most problematic, when the producers really had the least confidence in what I was doing. For the most part that was not a problem, but it became a bit of a thing. During that particular time, there was some worry that my work was not kinetic enough,” explained Whedon. “I wasn’t going to do a lot of we’re racing around characters while they’re saying their lines…Without all the elements together, I think they were feeling like, ‘Is this going to be exciting?’ I get it. It was lack of confidence. I had made one movie, and I was working with a crew, and even a cast that, I think, didn’t totally understand what I was doing. But I knew what I was doing! And Kevin [Feige] knew what I was doing.”
As we all know, the film was released to record-breaking numbers and would cement Marvel Studios as a powerhouse in the industry. However, one can’t help but think that if fans were privy to the details being described 6 years later, that maybe we would have labeled “Avengers” as another troubled superhero production.
