Several pieces of cut footage have recently been released, including an alternative opening scene, and Whedon explained the reasoning behind some of the cuts in an interview with Vulture.
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Of the alternative opening, which centres on Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Whedon said that there were "two factors" informing its omission from the theatrical cut.
"One: the movie was three hours long. Two: audiences didn't respond to it as well in the movie as I think they would as a DVD extra. Most of them didn't know who this character was or what the context was, and they were like, 'Uhhh, I don't know why I'm supposed to be personally involved in this character I don't know'.
"The rollout to the Avengers getting to Loki was so gradual that people were getting restless. I thought Cobie nailed it, and the reason I thought it was necessary is because I was trying to make a war movie and I wanted to give context that something bad had happened in the past."
"In a war movie, you don't know who's going to live or die," Whedon went on, "but you do know that this war happened and that [the characters] are going to be in a dire circumstance, and I wanted to create that atmosphere. I was able to get what I needed without doing that. It was tough. I hated cutting it."
It has been confirmed that Whedon will return to write and direct The Avengers 2.
The UK DVD and Blu-ray releases will reportedly not include commentary from Whedon, because the track was not completed in time.
Watch the alternative opening scene for The Avengers below:
