For those of you who’ve already seen Avengers: Age of Ultron—and judging by the Thursday night numbers, quite a few of you braved the crowds—you know that Joss Whedon’s superhero film has a lot going on. There was almost even more, and Whedon opened up about cutting out the Hulk’s best scene, saving it for use somewhere down the line.
Just a heads up, things could get a little spoilery beyond this point. We’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but you’ve been warned.
During the massive press buildup to the latest harrowing adventure for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Whedon sat down to talk to Badass Digest. He had this to say about why he cut out what he claims is the Gig Green Guy’s best scene:
It’s a great gag, but I couldn’t justify it. We were building a lot of the final battle around it, and it was killing us. Even when we were shooting. We had to stutter-step everything else, and eventually in post I convinced them we need to jettison this concept. I knew I could write a conclusion for Bruce and Natasha that I thought would be much better storytelling, and would be a real moment.
One of the best known adages in writing is "kill your darlings," meaning that, while you may have this great, wonderful moment, scene, bit of dialogue, or whatever, if it doesn’t serve the overall narrative, or worse, if it’s detrimental to the larger story, you have to take it out. First and foremost, Joss Whedon is a storyteller, and as such, he knows this well. As awesome as whatever he had in store for the Hulk was, he believes Age of Ultron is better without it.
Whedon doesn’t share any details about what exactly this scene entailed, which is, admittedly, super frustrating (I made an "aww, really?" noise when I first read this). On the other hand, if it is as good as he seems to believe, you have to appreciate the idea of setting it aside for use in the future and not spoiling the moment in advance. We know that Whedon won’t be back in the MCU anytime soon, but we can hope that the next time we see the Hulk, likely in one of the Avengers: Infinity War movies, we’ll get a glimpse of this purportedly fantastic moment.
After waiting for what felt like forever, not to mention watching countless TV spots, clips, and trailers, Avengers: Age of Ultron is finally here. The action sees Tony Stark try to create a "suit of armor around the world," but instead, the result is Ultron, a sinister artificial intelligence that is the Avenger’s most dangerous threat to date. If you’ve seen the movie and want to throw around spoilers while discussing it, go here.
