Joss Whedon Fought For Sole Writing Credit on His AVENGERS Script and He Almost Introduced The Wasp

Joss Whedon played a huge role in bringing the Marvel Cinematic Universe together with The Avengers. He could have had a long career with Marvel Studios but it seems like his experience on Age of Ultron may have soured his experience. Regardless, he did some great things with the MCU and I hope that one day he comes back for another project. 

During a recent interview with Thrillist, Whedon opened up about the script that he wrote and how he fought and lost getting sole writing credit on the film. He had to share the credit with Zak Penn even though Whedon wrote the script by himself. Whedon also revealed that he almost included The Wasp in the film. Here's what he had to say about writing the script:

"I started at square 1 on the script. I mean, straight up. I don’t wanna rag on it, but I fought that credit. I was very upset about it. I know how the Guild works, first guy on a movie and all that, but I’ve never had good luck with arbitrations…I read [Penn’s script] one time, and I’ve never seen it since. I was like, ‘Nope. There’s nothing here.’ There was no character connection. There was a line in the stage directions that said, apropos of nothing, ‘And then they all walk towards the camera in slow motion because you have to have that.’ Yeah, well, no: You have to earn that."

Whedon obviously wasn't a fan of the original script so he had to start from scratch. In the end, he ended up delivering an awesome Avengers movie! But, due to the rules of the writers guild he wasn't able to get a sole writing credit on the film.

He then goes on to talk about how he almost included The Wasp in The Avengers movie! Not only that, but she would have played a big role in the story. The reason for this was because there was a chance at the time that Scarlett Johansson wouldn't have been available to play Black Widow in the movie, and Whedon wanted to make sure there was a female character. So, Whedon wrote Wasp into the script to replace Black Widow. He also mentions that he almost added another villain because he wasn't sure if Loki would be a big enough threat.

"I wrote a huge bunch of pages starring The Wasp. That was not useful. I also worried that one British character actor was not enough to take on Earth’s mightiest heroes, and that we’d feel like we were rooting for the overdog. So I wrote a huge draft with Ezekiel Stane, Obadiah Stane’s son, in it."

In the end, even though The Wasp or Ezekiel Stane weren't used, the movie still turned out great! However, it would have been fun to see what he would have done with The Wasp. Regardless, The Wasp will be kicking ass in the upcoming film Ant-Man and The Wasp, which looks amazingly fun!

With Whedon both out at Marvel and DC, I wonder what film project he'll end up directing next.