Depending on how long you've been a comic book movie fan, you may or may not recall that there was a time when Zak Penn was going to write The Avengers. He penned The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Studios and was then entrusted to assemble Earth's Mightiest Heroes by Kevin Feige and company.
The news that Joss Whedon - whom Feige had crossed paths with while working on X-Men - would direct the movie surprised many fans when it broke in 2010.
Upon joining the MCU, Whedon quickly decided to write the movie's screenplay and has never been overly complimentary about Penn's work, saying: "There was a script. There just wasn't a script I was going to film a word of."
Penn admittedly has a hit-and-miss track record after working on movies like Elektra and X-Men: The Last Stand, but we'd be remiss not to point out that he's also contributed to hits like X2: X-Men United and Free Guy.
In the newly released MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, the writer reflects on learning Whedon had pushed him out of The Avengers and shared his blunt assessment of the now-disgraced filmmaker.
"All the other directors we had been talking about, Joss wasn't on the list," he recalls. "I heard he was going to rewrite the script himself. He didn't even want to meet with me - which, by the way, I always call the writer I'm replacing. I feel like that's courtesy."
Assuming Whedon might be uncomfortable about the situation, Penn chose to reach out to him (they'd known each other for a long time and had both graduated from Wesleyan). "He said to me, 'No, it's not awkward for me. I'm rewriting you.' It became pretty apparent that he had less than zero interest in, in any way, having me involved with the movie."
Penn had spent years of his life working on the movie and said to Whedon, "My kids have grown up while I've been working on it. They've all told their friends about it. What's going to happen when their friends are like, 'Your dad didn't work on Avengers?'" To that, Whedon responded, "What's going to happen when my kids think that you wrote half the story?"
As for how he feels about the director now, Penn adds, "I think he's a dick. I think he's a bad person, and it was really surprising. Remember, my bonus is based on my credit. So literally millions and millions of dollars, which is not the issue here, but that just came out of my pocket and went into Joss's pocket."
Ultimately, it was decided that Whedon would get a sole "Written by" credit, though both men shared a "Story by" credit which, ultimately, made neither of them happy.
These comments provide an interesting glimpse into the filmmaker's mindset and the sort of arrogance which was later on full display while he reshot Justice League a movie that, ultimately, went a long way in ending his career.