Joss Whedon admits that the Wasp almost appeared in The Avengers

Joss Whedon has admitted at DGA event that superhero Janet van Dyne (AKA the Wasp) almost appeared in The Avengers .

A screening of the film at the Director’s Guild of America headquarters in Los Angeles was followed by a Q & A with Whedon.

It was during that session that he revealed that the Wasp almost replaced Black Widow in the superhero ensemble.

"There was a little bit of time when we thought we might not actually get Scarlett [ Johansson ]," he said, adding that the solution was to including Wasp instead.

"There was a very Wasp-y draft that I wrote - but it was way too Wasp-y. Because I was like, ‘She adorable! I’m just going to write her!’"

Whedon also revealed that he wanted another villain to flank Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, although that was apparently the only battle he lost with the studio.

He declined to out the other villain he had in mind, lest he (or she) appear in another Marvel movie.

This’ll no doubt set tongues wagging about a Wasp appearance in The Avengers 2 , although we don’t expect to get any firm details on the sequel until more Marvel Phase Two films ( Iron Man 3 , Thor 2 , Captain America 2 ) have made their bow.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.