There’s been an interesting power shift in the Marvel cinematic universe. What started as essentially Robert Downey Jr.’s stage has now become Joss Whedon’s playground. However, after the massive success of The Avengers you can’t really blame Marvel for putting all their eggs in Joss’s basket.
Case in point: Joss Whedon flew in (literally) to help fix some troubled scenes in Thor: The Dark World. Speaking with SFX Magazine, Thor director Alan Taylor explained how it all went down.
“Joss came in to save our lives a couple of times,” laughs the director. “We had a major scene that was not working on the page at all in London, and he basically got airlifted in, like a SWAT team or something. He came down, rewrote the scene, and before he got back to his plane I sort of grabbed him and said, ‘And this scene and this scene?’ And he rewrote two other scenes that I thought had problems. Then finally we let go of him, he took off again, and we shot the scenes; and they were just much better and much lighter on their feet. Much more fun, much more surprising than what we had been trying to do. I can relate to guys who come out of the TV world, since that’s where I come from. And being able to land and work and solve a problem quikcly… I really was grateful.”
Two main points stand out here: One, Whedon is a powerhouse who is rebuilding the Marvel brand from the inside. Two, is Thor: The Dark World in trouble? We’ve already heard that Taylor and his crew returned for reshoots, mostly revolving around Tom Hiddleston’s Loki because, well, you can’t have a Marvel film without him apparently. Was Whedon working on Loki scenes or others? Was this during reshoots or before? Was this a frantic plea of desperation on Taylor’s part or just a fun, laid back punch-up by Whedon?
Between The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and now Thor: The Dark World, Joss Whedon sure is getting a lot of frequent flyer miles on Marvel’s dime. Let’s hope his magic works and let’s hope they don’t spread him too thin.