The Making of Avengers: Age of Ultron was a Sh*t Show (MCU Part 4)

Making a sequel to The Avengers is hard. Let’s talk about how difficult it was to make Avengers: Age of Ultron, from writer/director Joss Whedon caving to his own ambitions, to the Marvel Creative Committee forcing him to make changes.

In the entertainment world, there are millions of dollars on the line and troubled productions are bound to happen. Whether it's big egos, bigger budgets, or just plain bad luck, we are going behind-the-scenes on these disastrous, never ending, and sometimes dangerous productions. From the creators of WTF Happened To This Movie?, It Was A Sh*t Show is a video essay/documentary/podcast series looking at some of your favorite films and tv shows, and why they were such a nightmare to make.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - Giving Joss Whedon Control
01:45 - Whedon’s Controversies
02:25 - The Mission of Age of Ultron
04:16 - Marvel Refuses to Give Cast Raises
06:02 - Mutant Twins & Scarlet Johansson’s Pregnancy
07:01 - Whedon’s Perfectionism is a Liability
09:23 - A New Roster for the Avengers
10:41 - Marvel Creative Committee Takes Control
12:49 - Caving on Thor’s Visions
14:32 - A Costly Post-Production
16:23 - Whedon’s Regrets & Acceptance
18:43 - Avengers: Age of Ultron Releases May 1, 2015
19:10 - Marvel Female Superhero Problem
20:47 - Creative Committee Will Always Win

Sources:

Video:

Featured Footage:
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020)
Ant-Man (2015)
The Avengers (2012)*
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)*
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)*
Avengers: Endgame (2019)*
Black Panther (2018)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Marvel 75 Years (2014)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
*and special features

Music:
Danny Elfman & Brian Tyler - Avengers: Age of Ultron OST
Ryan Hudson - Sh*t Show Theme

#itwasashtshow #mcu #avengers

[ManSeekingMeaning]

This is honestly your best work yet. It flows so incredibly well and focusing it all on the emotional, singular journey of polarizing genius Whedon makes it feel like a short film. His issues with other projects aside, I always maintained that this man gave us the perfect Avengers film and that the deck was stacked against him heavily in the sequel. Glad to see there’s proof to that pudding thanks to your video. A beautiful mess, is what I call the potential of AoU.

[armintamzarian]

I actually really liked Age of Ultron, I'm a big fan of James Spader though

[sparkfadingspark]

Huge props to Downey for standing up for his fellow cast members in regards to pay. Some people would just say "not my problem" and be happy taking home more than their co-stars. You can see why people love working with him, he's loyal and someone you want on your side for sure.

[rpvisual]

Funny thing is Age of Ultron is the movie I rewatch the most out of the Avengers movies and is the most Avengers one of them all: there is a fully formed team from start to finish, Avengers tower, quin jet, and arguably the best interactions between all the characters

[prarthanagarwal]

the way you blend movie dialogues to your narration is just brilliant! storytelling genius

[CineRam]

I've always felt that Natasha calling herself a "monster" was in reference to her previous life. She's a flat-out murderer, and on some level she felt that all the good she did wouldn't ever make up for that. The misjudgment came in how her dialogue was written, having the "monster" line come so close to her talking to Banner about the Black Widow "graduation" procedure.

[kartikeygupta]

The farm scene and the conversation between Vision and Ultron are two of the best scenes in the entire MCU. I think that Joss Whedon's vision for the film should have been realized on screen.

[Dontmakemerun]

We still haven't gotten to Antman, this is gonna go on forever. An eternal sh*tshow. Thanks for all the compilation of this series, now to rewatch like 10 times and then watch Antman later

[giorgiopayne]

"give us the cave. or we will take out the farm" YOUR VIDEOS ARE SO EXCITING BRO!

[GetAwayFroMe]

I think a lot of people overlook the significance of this movie, and that it gave us our only true look at the ‘peak Avengers’.

It takes place prior to any big infighting, characters leaving for other places, and before any major deaths. It’s our Hero’s at their strongest point. Admittedly, it’s one of my favorite MCU movies, and imo it’s 2nd best to only Infinity War, as far as *Avengers* labeled movies.

[TheCatWatches]

I enjoyed the film. The characterization of Ultron was perfect and sympathetic. A Hal-9000 with Tony Stark’s personality that thought it was the hero. I found Ultron’s character more compelling than Thanos as an antagonist. Thanos was a threat from behind and unknowable, Ultron is a reflection of humanity’s cold calculating darker side. And most tragic of all, Ultron wasn’t programmed to understand human emotions and found it impossible to understand why he was in the wrong, something his brother, Vision seems to sympathize with. My biggest disappointment is that Ultron was killed off from the MCU too soon

[BobbyGrand-xkiw]

The Black Widow/Hulk romance legit came out of nowhere

[ajitbassan]

Ultron deserved a two part film. Such a big villain deserved so much more imo.

[niallgaffney]

The biggest issue with AoU is that the “Age” lasts like 4 days.
This needed to be its own trilogy.

[PhantomFlick]

I think Joss is too harsh on the final product. However AOU is another example on how the inconsistency of marvel isn’t a recent thing. It’s just been more prominent with the whole quantity over quality issue the last few years.

[sgrapness]

To this day I will never understand the "Black Widow said she was a monster because she couldn't have kids". I always took it as she was saying she was a monster because she was a assassin and had "so much red in her ledger". She was trying to make Bruce not feel so alone with all of the people he killed during Hulk rampages. Whenever I watch this movie I always pay attention to that scene and see it the same way.

[christownsend]

The fact marvel has a " creative committee " explains alot of the issues marvel n Disney had had with creating quality media at this point

[ivanagustinortiz]

Was just rewatching the Theodore Rex vid and now we're getting the long awaited part 4 for the MCU!? This is so great.

[thebadfella]

This is pretty good timing as I rewatched Age of Ultron just last night

[LongHaulGamingHD]

We're not even at the last 5 years of how messy Marvel was behind the scenes, at this rate Ian will be doing this till he's fucking 90 too