How do you squeeze nearly a dozen superheroes into a single coherent movie? By making it really, really long. In an interview with Vulture, Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon revealed that his original cut of the film was nearly three and a half hours long.
The process of cutting the Avengers sequel down to a relatively svelte 142 minutes was productive — and, in Whedon's eyes, good for the film, which he'd hoped would actually be shorter than the original. (It is, in fact, shorter by one minute.)
"There's one or two things that I'm unhappy about not having in there, but they're small," Whedon said. He didn't elaborate on the scenes that were dropped, but hey, maybe someday we'll get a director's cut.