‘Avengers 2 Age of Ultron' Spoilers; Writer/Director Reveals No Return For Loki, New Villain And The End Of A Franchise

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" will no longer have Loki. Prolific writer/director Joss Whedon reveals in an interview that they will have a new villain (Ultron) and they will consider ending a franchise.

Joss Whedon is currently the cinematic genius of the moment. He's come a long way from his "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" days. In a lengthy, revealing interview with Entertainment Weekly, he shares juicy tidbits on the Avengers' sequel.

On why Loki is not returning: "Every movie is going to be a different villain. Loki's awesome, and he is awesome in Thor 2. But The Avengers is a different thing. I worked with Tom more than any other actor [in the last film], because he was the only villain and there were six heroes. And he was as great as anyone I've ever worked with, and I get why people loved the character. But it's an Avengers movie."

On the new villain, the robot Ultron, whom Whedon infested with a 'human' side: "It wasn't a challenge because I knew right away what I wanted to do with him. He's always trying to destroy the - Avengers, goddamn it, he's got a bee in his bonnet. He's not a happy guy, which means he's an interesting guy. He's got pain. And the way that manifests is not going to be standard robot stuff. So we'll take away some of those powers because at some point everybody becomes magic, and I already have someone [a new character, Scarlet Witch] who's a witch. You have to be careful to ground it while still evoking that guy. As a character I love him because he's so pissed off."

On his former quote of "death, death and death": "I'm always joking about that. Um... maybe? But I'd have to have a really good reason, a really great sequence for [Marvel executives] to go, 'We'll cut off a potential franchise, that's fine!' They know, as any good studio does, that without some stakes, some real danger, how involved can we get? We don't just rule it out across the board, but neither is the mission statement "Who can we kill?" We try to build the story organically and go, "How hard can we make it on these people?" You go to movies to see people you love suffer-that's why you go to the movies. [Pause] You looked like you didn't believe me when I said that."