Joss Whedon says directing Age Of Ultron "broke me"

With Avengers: Age Of Ultron riding high at the box office and having been met with widely positive reviews, Joss Whedon can finally step back from the MCU with a sense of satisfaction. However, the director has revealed to Hero Complex that directing the long-awaited sequel was a hugely draining assignment…

"The weight of the thing," said Whedon, when asked what was the most taxing element. "The weight of the last thing, of this not just being the next thing that happens — I wanted this film to be its own movie. I wanted it to be better, if possible, than the first one."

"Not that the first one was the best movie ever made, but I wanted to do better, just be better at shooting. I wanted to work harder on the script. I wanted to spend more time just really working every aspect of it, because why go again if you’re not doing something new?"

"I heard that voice in my head every time, ‘But is this a great idea?’ And suddenly I had doubt that I don’t usually suffer from. And meanwhile, the studio’s gonna have some too, because everything’s riding on this all of a sudden. And it became a problem in a way that nothing else has."

"And it was a hard movie to make on top of that. So being paralyzed by either indecision or the weight of responsibility? Not useful, don’t have time for your paralysis, son, snap out of it. This was the hardest work I’ve ever done… it a little bit broke me."

Fortunately, the end product was a hugely satisfying movie, but it's certainly understandable that Whedon would want to move away from Marvel after such an arduous process. Treat yourself to a low-budget indie on us, Joss…

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George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.