Joss Whedon: No $100M Salary For ‘The Avengers 2,’ But Still Making A Lot

Joss Whedon isn’t getting $100M for The Avengers 2, answering the rumors of a gigantic payday by calling his supposed salary “nuts.”

Whedon made a post on Whedonesque.com about the rumors that he’s in line to make $100 million for the sequel to the third-grossing movie of all time, The Avengers.

While the 48-year-old writer-producer admits he’s getting a gigantic sum to make a sequel, he say’s its not exactly “Downey money” (referring to the $50M the Iron Man actor is getting for the Avengers sequel).

Whedon wrote of the $100M rumor:

“I was going to let it slide, but I’ve got this sour taste in my mouth. (Mmmm, lemonade!). Some facts are not facts. I’m not going to go into the whole thing, but jeepers, I’m not getting $100 mil on Avengers 2. If I were, I would come on this site and laugh and laugh and laugh. I’m not making Downey money. I’m making A LOT, which is exciting. I’m not pretending to be a poor farmer, an Everyman, an ANYman. But that number is nuts.”

No matter how big the payday, it’s clear that Whedon is feeling the pressure of trying to follow up a movie that grossed $1.5 billion at the box office. But he noted that it would be impossible to judge the sequel against the original Avengers.

“The only pressure is the pressure that is there every time I do a new project. Is it going to be good? It is going to be different? Is there even a reason to make another one? Is there a reason for this to be my next thing? Can I pull it off? I am not going to try and match the box office of the first one because that would be bonkers…”

While Joss Whedon isn’t getting $100M for The Avengers 2, he could still make close to that amount in his five-year deal with Disney, writes Dorothy Pomerantz of Forbes.

“Whedon pretty conspicuously doesn’t deny that he’s getting a big overall deal,” Pomerantz wrote. “He just says that he’s not getting that money on the second Avengers.”

So Joss Whedon could get his $100M after all.