Joss Whedon is winding down his promotional efforts on Much Ado About Nothing but he was recently in London for the Gala Premiere of the film. Being in the UK, Joss stopped by the offices of Empire Magazine to appear on their always entertaining Empire Podcast. Here's a transcription of what he had to say concerning Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and The Avengers 2. On S.H.I.E.L.D. Joss didn't reveal a whole lot, only offering up that, "We're building the next episodes, we start shooting in July, God help us." He did reveal that he's probably not going to direct any episodes besides the pilot. "No, not for the foreseeable. I do have a day job...," he replied when asked.
As for that day job, everyone know he's currently working on The Avengers 2 which he updated, "I've turned in a first draft, the story is very set, everybody [at Marvel's] on board with the exact movie I'm trying to make which is what worked the first time." He continued on from there, reflecting on the process of making the first Avengers, "I said 'I want to make this movie, a Marvel version of this move' and they said 'Yay' and never looked back. Well they [actually] said 'Maybe the tone' or 'Maybe this structure' but once we had it, we had it." He then added, " And I feel like we're there with [Avengers 2] which is really important."
When asked if there was still fine tuning to be done, he confirmed, "There's still 'very fine tuning' to do on the script. There are many thing that can be 'plussed' (sic) and be better and also, there's some science in it, which means I have scenes where someone says 'Science the sciency science'. So I'm like 'I'll fix that later.'"
When asked if he'll deflect any questions about Quicksilver he said of course he'll deflect any questions about the speedster and only added that 'he's in our movie and he's going to be dope.' He did actually go on to say that, "Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, very close to my heart because they were Avengers the whole time I was reading the book as a kid." For reference, the two characters first joined the team in 1965 in the issue "The Old Order Changeth" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They would appear off and on in various issues as members of the team up until the 80's. Continuing to describe his remembrance of the two character, Joss stated, "Oh, and sometimes they were 'EVIL' but sometimes they were good. They're very textured, they're very different from everybody else in the mix. They're not their to make things easier on The Avengers but what we do with the group once we've got them is 'squeeze.' The fun I'm having doing that is probably unseemly."
Probably the biggest revelation came from a clever, roundabout way of asking another question. When Joss was asked if there will be another humorous Old-English word like 'quim' thrown in the film. Said Joss, "Everyone is going to be looking for the Loki-Hulk smash moment and you'll be looking for quim. No, first of all, imitating what I did before is the surest way to do it not as well. Second of all, Loki's not there to say those terrible things. Although I do think we should bring the word back, not as an insult, it's just a nice word." So there you have it, Loki is not in The Avengers 2.
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Release Date: May 1, 2015 (USA)
MPAA Rating: This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated
Starring: Scarlet Johansson, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Written by: Joss Whedon (screenplay)