Joss Whedon Talks Avengers, Avengers 2 and Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel's The Avengers

director Joss Whedon talked with Indiewire about his massive success this year, and while much of what he had to say actually revolved around his low-budget interpretation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, he did touch down a bit on Marvel's The Avengers, its as-yet-untitled sequel, and Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Avengers had no studio tinkering," said the filmmaker. "It only had studio helping, which is a very strange position to be in. They had parameters, and that's the best way to work -- to get people that are up front about their parameters. When you get people that are going to change them halfway through, you're gonna be in trouble. And that's happened to me. But when you have people that know what they want, and you're like, 'Good. This is what you want, here's what I want. Here's how they mesh. You all agree?' And then that's what you pursue, you're in a good position. Like Much Ado, The Avengers was a movie that I got to make the way I hoped to, from start to finish." He also, as he has many times in the past, acknowledged that the film isn't without its flaws, but that he enjoys the way it's been embraced by the public. "You know, it's not a perfect film, but it seems to have tapped into a need, and that's more exciting than -- making a perfect little jewel," he said. "It's just hitting somebody in the gut, in a nice way. Kissing them in the gut? No, that sounds awful. But I have to say, there is not a number that can make me feel the way I felt during the screening of this, of Much Ado, when the audience all got on their feet at the end. And I'm not saying I might have shed a tear, it's probably something I ate." Asked about Avengers 2, Whedon said, "There's been enormous progress. We are trundling along, I can't share much. And by much I mean anything. I can say that S.H.I.E.L.D. came together in a very organic way. And part of my taking "Avengers 2" was that I'd have the opportunity to work in the Marvel universe. I didn't exactly know I'd be running a TV show five minutes later....but it's something I really believe in. Although Avengers is the top of my list of exciting new things, S.H.I.E.L.D. is really talking to me."