Iron Man (1+2), The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America. All these films contained more or less extensive hints at the secret organisation S.H.I.E.L.D. that will finally unite the heroes under one banner: The Avengers.

After every character got his own playground over the last years, people are now ready to see them teaming-up. The ensemble project got director Joss Whedon (founder of famous TV series such as Buffy, Angel or Firefly) attached to it and production wrapped a while ago. With the theatrical release in sight, Whedon talked with Collider about the film in general and the film version in detail. He explained that he considers the theatrical cut being his director's cut and rejects the possibility of an extended version for DVD/Blu-ray later on. Although his first cut clocked in at approx. 3 hours, he shortened it to 2h 15m and is very satisfied with that. The scenes he took out were nice for him but not essential for the film.

Here's what he had to say in his own words:

“My first cut was three hours long and it’s now down to 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I’m extremely proud of that. I had always intended to go over two, under two and a half. There was no way a movie with this many great actors and this much epic scope was gonna clock in under two and not feel a little anemic, somebody wasn’t gonna get their moment if that happened. But at the same time, I get very angry that romantic comedies run over two hours long, it’s like ‘Guys, that’s not okay.’ More isn’t more. I don’t want anything in the movie that shouldn’t be.”

“There’s a lot of me that got cut out, but I think part of the process in a situation like this is you make the movie, you make your movie, then you remove yourself out of the equation. At some point you stop looking beyond The Avengers movie at your own stuff, you don’t look at that horizon you look at this movie and you go, ‘You know what, The Avengers are more important than I am so these things that I’m obsessed with aren’t necessarily moving the story forward, and therefore they are baggage.’ You can do that in a TV show, you can bring your baggage and sort of lay it out because you have a season to do it, but in a movie you actually have to remove yourself from the equation a bit and when I was finally able to do that, I saw a much clearer road to how to get the best experience for the audience.”

“No [there won’t be a director’s cut on the DVD]. I… believe very strongly in putting the director’s cut into the theaters. I believe that the director’s cut is the best movie for the studio and the best version of the movie for the audience. I’ve never really been in a situation where I had to pull the beating heart out of something that I did. I think people get to see a lot of extraordinary extras because I did shoot a bunch of stuff that I love, but the movie is the movie I want it to be.”

There's still hope that the majority of the unused material could end up in the bonus section of the home video releases. If Whedon liked them, fans will surely want to check them out.

The Avengers opens in US cinemas on May 4th, 2012.