One of the individuals directly responsible for the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Joss Whedon, who directed the 2012 blockbuster Marvel's The Avengers and its follow-up Avengers: Age of Ultron, which were both huge successes at the box office. The filmmaker revealed after this summer's release of Avengers: Age of Ultron that he will no longer be involved in the MCU. During a recent Q&A, courtesy of ComicBook.com, the filmmaker revealed why he decided to step away from the MCU.

"I've gone off the reservation for a while. It was five years that I was working on either Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. That was an enormous gift they gave me; they handed me several hundreds of millions of dollars and said 'do what you do,' which is very rare and I was very lucky. At the same time, it's important for me not just to have my own thing and do something smaller, but also to create a new challenge for myself because I will start to repeat myself. No, you know, I was their sort of consigliere for a while...but I sort of had my finger in all of the films in the second phase but then I just had to concentrate only on Ultron and sort of know that when it was done, I was just going to stop, so I made a completely clean break."

The director was replaced by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo for Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Avengers: Infinity War - Part II. Many fans were hoping that he would eventually come back at some point in Marvel Phase Three or Marvel Phase Four, but it doesn't seem that will happen now. The news isn't terribly surprising, though, since Joss Whedon revealed shortly after Avengers: Age of Ultron's release that the sequel "broke" him.

As you may recall, right after principal photography wrapped on Marvel's The Avengers, the director shot an indie black and white adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which was released in 2013. The filmmaker revealed that the producers even joked that he should make another Shakespeare adaptation over a 'long weekend,' in hopes of getting him in a better mood after shooting Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Joss Whedon hasn't revealed which project he will do next, so we'll have to wait and see what he announces in the near future. Are you disappointed that the filmmaker will no longer be involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Or are you looking forward to seeing what other filmmakers will be brought in by the studio? Take a look at the director's full Q&A video below, and stay tuned for more on his next project.