CraveOnline: Now that its out and everyones seen it, did Joss Whedons Avengers turn out anything like the one you started six years ago?
Zak Penn: I think it turned out better. I think he did a fantastic job. I mean, look, I think that its very similar in terms of what we imagined in our head, what the movie would be like and what characters would be in it. Kevin Feige was working on it all the way through so hes the person to ask the most. Hed tell you this is what we hoped the movie would be, but most of the time you hope the movies going to be this good and it turns out very crappy, so its really a relief when you hope the movies going to turn out well and its a great movie.
Down to things like, was it always the Chitauri?
Actually, there was a lot of debate back and forth because there were rights issues, and whether or not it could be the Skrulls or whether it could be the Chitauri, and even in the beginning whether it would be Loki or not. It all got kicked around. Joss, its really his screenplay. He rewrote it.
And you can tell its his voice, but the fans have been following since you started work on it six years ago.
Yeah, so he would be the one to ask about the specific final decisions on that stuff. As you can imagine, Ultimates was a huge influence on it. When we read that, we were like, Wow, this is a great Avengers movie right here.
He said the one thing he was mandated was the death of Coulson. Did that go back to when you were working on it?
No. Actually that surprises me. Maybe the one thing from when he started working on it but that was not a foregone conclusion. When we started working on it, there was no Agent Coulson yet.
That was even before Iron Man 1?
Yeah. Put it this way. I definitely dont remember there being an edict: Agent Coulson must die. I think as the movies came out and he became a character that was in all of them in some manner or another, it because probably a more likely scenario but I dont even think I had him. If he died in my script, probably a lot of people died.
Are you still in Marvel world?
Not really. I think Avengers was the thing it was all working up towards but theres not a lot left that I really want to do. So Ive moved on to other things. I probably will eventually come back and write something for them but I dont see it happening any time in the immediate future.