Joss Whedon has left Twitter following criticism over his latest film.

The 50-year-old Avengers: Age Of Ultron filmmaker, who also directed 2012′s Avengers Assemble, deleted his account on the microblogging website on May 4 after a backlash from fans, who hit out at his portrayals of Scarlett Johansson’s character Black Widow and Elizabeth Olsen’s alter-ego, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch in the Marvel sequel.

Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the Marvel films (Marvel/Disney)

Before deleting his account @josswhedon, Joss – who previously left Twitter in 2013 – tweeted: “Thank you to all the people who’ve been so kind and funny and inspiring up in here.”

A Twitter user, known as John Galt, shared a montage of the “threats” the director had received over Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

Some of the posts focused on his “hatchet” job on the Black Widow and included: “@josswhedon WE ALL HATE YOU”, “@josswhedon thanks for ruining Natasha Romanoff you absolute trash can”, and “@josswhedon why do you ruin everything we love”.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor Patton Oswalt defended the filmmaker’s decision.

Other stars who have previously quit social media include Stephen Fry, Sue Perkins, Matt Lucas and Iggy Azalea.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron, which also stars Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo, has broken Disney’s record for the highest-grossing seven day opening of all time.

The action adventure has taken £22.5 million at the box office since it opened in the UK on April 23, taking its place in the record books as the all-time biggest opening for a superhero movie.

Joss, who previously created TV shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, has also spoken out about his “unpleasant” conflicts with Marvel during the making of the film.

He has decided not to direct the next two Avengers films, handing the reins for Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 and 2 over to Captain America filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo.

He told Empire Film Podcast that Marvel bosses were not pleased with certain scenes, such as the dream sequences experienced by the characters.

(Marvel/Disney)
(Marvel/Disney)

“The dreams were not an executive favourite either – the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep… I respect these guys, they’re artists, but that’s when it got really, really unpleasant,” he said.

Joss also said he would have liked Captain Marvel and Spider-Man to appear in the film.

“I would have put both of them [in Age Of Ultron], but neither of the deals were made,” he said.