Still, with Whedon leaving the Avengers franchise right before all sorts of creative new recruits are introduced to fight Thanos — including Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, and Black Panther — does he harbor any twinge of regret that he won’t ever get to script the first Avengers conversation between, say, Tony Stark and Star-Lord?

‘Oh, buddy, are you kidding?’ said Whedon. ‘I’m angry about scenes between people in my movies that I didn’t get to write!’