No, Joss Whedon did not leave Twitter because of 'militant' feminists

Earlier this week, Avengers: Age of Ultron writer Joss Whedon called it quits on Twitter. There was a lot of chatter about the cause of his departure, with many wondering if it was directly related to criticisms of Age of Ultron and its handling of Scarlett Johansson's character, Black Widow.

Speaking with BuzzFeed News, however, Whedon put this "horseshit" rumor to bed, saying that he quit Twitter to focus on his work — not because of feminist criticisms.

"Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter," Whedon said. "That's something I'm used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause."

Whedon said that the notion that "social justice warriors destroyed one of their own," or that quitting Twitter was linked to Feminist Frequency simply isn't true.

"It's like, Nope," Whedon said. "That didn't happen ... literally the second person to write me to ask if I was OK when I dropped out was [Feminist Frequency founder] Anita [Sarkeesian]."

Whedon went on to praise Sarkeesian's commitment to "stay on Twitter and fight back the trolls," saying that her perseverance is laudable.

"For somebody like me to argue with a bunch of people who wanted Clint and Natasha to get together [in the second Avengers film], not so much," he said.

Whedon's last tweet, captured by ScreenCrush, read "Thank you to all the people who've been so kind and funny and inspiring up in here." At this time of his departure, he had more than 1 million followers. It's not the first time he's left Twitter; in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he spoke about how the platform sometimes feels like a drug.

"The moment I joined, oh my God, what a responsibility, this is enormous work — very fun, but it really started to take up a huge amount of my head space," Whedon said at the time. "I'm making a movie, I got a responsibility, this job doesn't pay very well. It's a fascinating medium, it's a fascinating social phenomenon. People are like, 'It's like a drug.' Yeah, and it's like a job. It's just another art form. Until I have a script I truly believe in or a tweet that's really remarkable, I can just walk away and get back to the storytelling I need to do."

For more on Whedon's most recent departure, read the full interview over at BuzzFeed. Whedon's comments about focusing on work echo similar statements he's made in the past about returning to original creations. The writer has remained adamant that he won't work on future Avengers titles, because he's eager to work on something new.