Director Joss Whedon Says THE AVENGERS Blu-ray/DVD Will Have 30 Minutes of Deleted Scenes; Reveals First Cut was 3 Hours

With director Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers opening around the world in the coming weeks, over the past three days, Marvel and Walt Disney held a massive worldwide press junket here in Los Angeles and I got to speak with almost the entire cast in addition to Whedon.  While I’ll be saving the interviews until closer to release (which is May 4 in America), I wanted to post a bit of what Whedon told me today.  That’s because Whedon revealed The Avengers Blu-ray/DVD will have 30 minutes of deleted scenes and that his first cut was three hours!  Hit the jump for more.

So you’re probably asking what scenes were cut from the film?

When I did The Avengers set visit last year (read it here), one of the things we saw in the art department was Steve Rodgers/Captain America’s Brooklyn apartment.  But when I saw the film the other night, the scene wasn’t included.  When I asked Whedon about it he said:

“We did film a scene in Cap’s apartment. It will be one of the DVD extras. I had quite a little sequence built of Cap not relating to the world and feeling his isolation and as we got closer and closer, we realized, when he’s punching that bag, he’s pretty much telling us everything we need to know.  He’s in a gym by himself at night beating things up. And then you sort of go, “Actually, that story’s being told by that.”

In addition to that scene, Whedon told the NY Times about another one that featured Captain America reuniting with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in the present day:

“One of the best scenes that I wrote was the beautiful and poignant scene between Steve and Peggy [Carter] that takes place in the present. And I was the one who was like, Guys, we need to lose this. It was killing the rhythm of the thing. And we did have a lot of Cap, because he really was the in for me. I really do feel a sense of loss about what’s happening in our culture, loss of the idea of community, loss of health care and welfare and all sorts of things. I was spending a lot of time having him say it, and then I cut that.”

While I wanted to ask a lot more about what was cut, my interview was very brief, so you’ll just have to be happy knowing the home video release is going to be loaded with extra footage.

Finally, as you’ve probably seen me say on again and again on Twitter, I absolutely loved The Avengers.  It’s now my favorite Marvel movie.  If you were nervous a movie loaded with so many characters couldn’t work, don’t worry, it does.  Whedon really has accomplished a small miracle getting everyone enough screentime to make it all work.  He’s also cast the perfect Bruce Banner/Hulk in Mark Ruffalo, who steals the movie and delivers some of the best lines.  Trust me, you’re going to love The Avengers and you’re going to want to see the sequel immediately.

Here’s the part of the interview with Whedon where he talks about the deleted scenes.  You can also read his quotes below.  Expect the full interview the week of release.

Collider: I definitely want to try to ask a few questions that have not been asked, for example, I believe that maybe you filmed that scene in Cap’s apartment in Brooklyn. Was that filmed and did it make the movie?

Joss Whedon: Yes, we did film a scene in Cap’s apartment. It will be one of the DVD extras. I had quite a little sequence built of Cap not relating to the world and feeling his isolation and as we got closer and closer, we realized, when he’s punching that bag, he’s pretty much telling us everything we need to know.  He’s in a gym by himself at night beating things up. And then you sort of go, “Actually, that story’s being told by that.”

About how many minutes do you think will be on the DVD/Blu-ray of deleted scenes?

Whedon: At least 30.

Get out. Really?

Whedon: Mmhm.

That’s a very big number.

Whedon: My first assembly was three hours long.

Is it a lot of stuff that’s character stuff?

Whedon: It is. It’s some character stuff but it was more ancillary. Marvel never wanted to take the texture out of the movie, the little moments between people. We wanted, obviously, to streamline it and make it not so long that it became self-indulgent, which at that length it was, and they wanted to focus on The Avengers more than anything else, but the thing I loved was there were so many little moments that I thought, “They’re going to make me squeeze this out,” and they never did. Once we had the structure down, they really wanted it to breathe and for these things to be as textured as they could be.