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People Are Trying to Uncancel Joss Whedon. Why?

What Joss Whedon Wanted to Do Differently on 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

Like most movie fans, Joss Whedon was happy with how the first Avengers film turned out. But that doesn?t mean the 50-year-old writer-director wanted to replicate the 2012 hit with this weekend?s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

?There was no reason for me to make the same movie twice,? Whedon told Yahoo Movies during a recent interview, which you can watch above. ?I wanted to make something different. I wanted to explore the characters in a different way, [and] I wanted to go a little deeper.?

You could understand if Whedon would?ve leaned on his laurels just a little bit with Part II: Its predecessor was a massive hit, smashing box-office records and eventually earning more than $620 million in the U.S. and $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest grossing film of all time.

Now that the actual assembling of its six main heroes (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye) is out of the way, Age of Ultron does indeed dig a little bit deeper into the stories and minds of its superheroes, adding romance between two of them, turmoil among many of them (which nicely sets up one of Marvel?s next adventures, Captain America: Civil War), and even an unexpected home-life backstory we won?t spoil here. It also adds to the mix the super-powered twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, not to mention its titular villain.

Related: How Worried Are Joss Whedon, ?Avengers? Cast About Sequel?s Sky-High Expectations? 

Another area Whedon sought to improve was the overall feel of the film, which has a grittier aesthetic than the first. ?I really changed up the way I shot this movie. I wanted it to have a different look,? he explained. ?I wanted it to be something visually arresting in a way that the first one wasn?t necessarily.?

As Whedon puts it in terms food lovers can understand, he didn?t want to serve turkey for lunch two days in a row. The filmmaker has already announced that Ultron will be his last Avengers movie, which is unfortunate: We?d love to see what he could cook up for another meal.

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens Friday. See what the cast says about their various costume upgrades:

How Joss Whedon Fooled Us All With That 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Death (Spoilers!)

WARNING: Big-time Avengers spoilers in video above and text below.

Joss Whedon knew somebody had to die in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He just didn?t want us to guess who it would be.

?My whole job during the movie was just to set up the obvious fact that Hawkeye [Jeremy Renner] was going to die,? Whedon told us in our interview, which you can watch above. ?[I wanted to] just really lay it in there. Just [make] Hawkeye a dead man.?

If you?ve seen the movie (and hopefully you have, which is why you?re continuing to read this spoilerific post), you might?ve taken the bait. The seeds are planted early on, when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) says, ?There?s no way we all make it.? It?s why Whedon took us on a surprising detour to Hawkeye?s rural home for a look the hero?s home life, and why those moments with his concerned pregnant wife (Linda Cardellini) and the promise of ?one last mission? seemed like they could act as tragic foreshadowing. Hawkeye was being set up as our analog, the closest thing to an Average Joe in a team of supers.

Even more faux-foreshadowing occurs during the Avengers? climactic showdown against Ultron, where Hawkeye goes out of his way to save the life of a young boy. With Ultron spraying bullets at them, Hawkeye acts as the child?s human shield, and it appears this will be his heroic last moment. That is until Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor Johnson) ? who had become Hawkeye?s verbal jousting partner throughout the film ? dives in front of them and sacrifices his own life.

Related: ?Avengers: Age of Ultron? Ending, Credits Sequence Explained (Spoilers Galore!)

Whedon, who had Taylor-Johnson in mind for the role from the onset, said he discussed Pietro?s one-and-done arc with him right off the bat. ?I said, 'This is the plan.? There?s an outside chance that somebody may make us change the plan [to kill Pietro], because we?re making a big franchise movie? but everybody understood how well that was going to work.?

As for Taylor-Johnson, it?s clear his character?s demise is disappointing: ?The sad thing is, it?s the only sort of franchise I wish I wasn?t being killed off on,? he said, before co-star Elizabeth Olsen (who plays his twin sister, Scarlet Witch) reminds him that her character has the power to bring people (like Hawkeye) back to life. So maybe there?s some home for a Pietro return, after all.

Whedon, though, explained why such a key character?s death is necessary: ?I think of these movies, as much as anything, as war movies. And if there?s no cost to us for all the damage we?ve done, if we say, 'Oh, we can just get through this, and walk away arm-in-arm and it?s all good? ? that?s disingenuous, and it doesn?t feel like real storytelling.?

Avengers: Age of Ultron is now in theaters. Watch Whedon and the cast talk about their Avenger-themed work dreams: