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Joss Whedon Reveals 'Avengers: Age of Ultron's Bogus Alternative Ending

By Kristy Puchko | Marvel Movies | May 5, 2015 |

By Kristy Puchko | Marvel Movies | May 5, 2015 |


SPOILER WARNING: The following article will discuss in detail the final sequence of Avengers: Age of Ultron. If you proceed past this point, you surrender any right to bitch about spoilers.

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Okay. So you know how the WHOLE Hawkeye arc of Avengers: Age of Ultron seemed to be setting up for Family Man Barton biting it heroically in the final act, but then MCU does the ol’ bait and switch and kills Quicksilver instead? Well, it turns out Avengers: Age of Ultron’s director Joss Whedon wasn’t sure this would fly. So he shot an alternate ending. And guess what?! It makes even less sense that the lame-ass one they went with.

On the Empire podcast (via Blastr) Whedon confessed he filmed scenes that would have allowed Quicksilver to survive being shot scores of times. Because superheroes. Or movie merchandizing or whatever. Here’s Whedon:

“It’s disingenuous to make, as I refer to it, a war movie and say there is no price. In this movie we’re saying, ‘prove to me that you guys are heroes.’ And [Quicksilver] is the guy who is the least… the most arrogant, the most annoying — if you watch the DVD extras, an incredible pussy hound — and Hawkeye genuinely hates him and that’s the guy who saves him. I knew that it would be resonant and it would make everything work and matter more…

I said, ‘The only thing that would keep you alive is if the Disney executives say, ‘Idiot, it’s a franchise and we need all these people and you’re not allowed to kill them.’ … We did actually shoot him in the last scene, in an outfit with his sister. And we did shoot him waking up from his, ‘Ahh! I didn’t really die from these 47 bullet wounds!’ but the intent was always that we were going to earn this and then you have to stand by it.”

So I guess cheers to Disney for finally killing off a Marvel hero for reals…even though it’s a new one no one gave any fucks for. I’m not saying I wanted Barton to die (though the way Renner talks lately…), but the movie seemed to be laying it on pretty thick that he’d never live to see that baby be born. Then, he even gets a moment of “Well, here it comes,” acceptance of death as he rushes to save that kid. But then Quicksilver rushes in to take the bullets, and steal Barton’s thunder.

Seriously, there could not have been a lower stakes loss to this team. And after the spectacular version X-Men: Days of Future Past broke out with Evan Peters, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s weak-sauce take is better off dead. Plus, it’s Joss Fucking Whedon directing. The guy who kills off beloved characters without breaking a sweat. How is it that Marvel didn’t give him one lasting deathblow worth a damn in his time with them?

Overall, I liked Avengers: Age of Ultron fine. But the stakes of the MCU are getting increasingly laughable the more bankable their heroes become. I mean, even Agent Coulson got a pass to better pad Disney’s pockets.

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Kristy Puchko can’t even sometimes.