If you love the Marvel cinematic universe, there’s no doubt you enjoyed the brilliant creative mastermind Joss Whedon create the first two Avengers films for the ever-popular MCU. Whedon’s films gave each hero a sense of humanity (as Whedon often does perfectly) and expanded on action, interpersonal relationships, and heroic traditions from comic books. Whedon served as a consultant for the entirety of Marvel’s “Phase 2” film slate but when speaking to Cosmic Book News, the director divulged why he needed to remove himself from the Marvel equation.

Will you have any involvement in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Whedon: No. You know I was their sort of Consigliere for a while… We do not discuss our thing… [audience laughter] But, I sort of had my finger in all of the films in the second phase, but then I just had to concentrate only on Ultron, and sort of know when it was done I was just going to stop. So I made a completely clean break – not because we had a falling out – just because I was like, “I can’t…” If I was still there going, “Well, here are my thoughts on this film,” I’d be there every day. I wouldn’t do anything else because there are a lot of films, and it is a lot of fun. It’s very seductive. When you can put your little fairy dust on things and just improve them slighty, and they actually listen to you… I was a script doctor for a long time, and the part where they listen to you was very rare; so it was very important for my own self to go “we can still be friends,” but…

I completely understand Whedon’s need to take a step back, but it will certainly be a loss for the Marvel universe because nobody knows how to write better group/team dynamics than Joss Whedon himself. (Just watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel for evidence of that!) Maybe with the time away from the MCU we can get a new original story from the TV and film legend? One can only hope!