Joss Whedon has been slowly letting his dissatisfaction with the Marvel Studios creep out in interviews for a while now, whether it’s defending Edgar Wright’s vision for Ant-Man or calling out sexism in the comic book film industry. But it seems that was Whedon holding back, because now that he’s no longer technically employed by Marvel, Joss is getting very specific about his frustrations. It’s not pretty.

In an interview on the Empire Film Podcast (where, caution, Whedon drops plenty of spoilers about the film), the director said he had to struggle to keep some of the slower, character-driven moments that gave the film its patented Whedon flair. Hawkeye visiting his family at their farmhouse and those Scarlet Witch nightmares were not a hit with the studio, but the extended sequence where Thor visits a cave and has a vision of the Infinity Stones was, essentially, a mandate. Whedon said:

The dreams were not an executive favorite either — the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep … With the cave, it really turned into: they pointed a gun at the farm’s head and said, “Give us the cave, or we’ll take out the farm,” — in a civilized way. I respect these guys, they’re artists, but that’s when it got really, really unpleasant.

But the original version of Thor’s cave plot was, based on what Whedon suggests, more lucid than what ended up in the final cut. After Whedon’s concept—which featured Chris Hemsworth shirtlessly channeling a prophecy—didn’t test well with audiences, it was cut down to a far less comprehensible version. “Thor is always the hardest guy to integrate,” Whedon admitted, but thinks the studio “threw out the baby with the pond water” when it came to trimming a scene that was necessary to set up future films in the M.C.U.

The theme that crops up over and over in the interview is how hard Whedon fought to keep both heart and character alive in the action-packed Avengers sequel. The studio had Whedon trim a sizable chunk of Natasha and Bruce’s story, about which Whedon says, “it was some of the most beautiful stuff and I hated to cut it.” In defense of the farm plot and the the introduction of Hawkeye’s family Whedon declares, “Linda Cardellini is the fucking secret weapon of this movie. She is so wonderful.” Whedon’s refreshingly human take on blockbusters is part of what made The Avengers such a success, and every inch of that ground he lost in Avengers: Age of Ultron weakens the movie. But you can still see that signature Whedon touch even in the final over-loaded confrontation between the Avengers and Ultron’s robot army. Whedon talks about the important role Quicksilver’s death plays in the film saying in the end, “It’s a big explosion, who cares? But Wanda’s grief is extraordinary.”

Whedon’s love of character is so strong he even wanted to make room for two more players in the already-crowded cast. He said he would have included both Spider-Man and Captain Marvel in the final cut, but Sony and Marvel came to an agreement on Spidey late in the game and as far as we know, Captain Marvel still hasn’t been cast. Which is too bad; I can think of few people better to introduce the world to Carol Danvers than Joss Whedon. But for now, the M.C.U. will have to soldier on without him.

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