The best thing that has ever happened to the Marvel Cinematic Universe was corralling Joss Whedon into writing and directing The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Whedon is simultaneously one of Hollywood’s most creative story-tellers, and one of Hollywood’s most gifted story-managers. Those skills combine perfectly for working in a sprawling, multi-film universe like the MCU.
Whedon fans have always understood this about Joss. He is an unique (and unafraid) voice in the culture of television and movies. Not everything he makes is a great success, but everything he makes is exciting to encounter because his voice is so singular and his execution is so smooth. There is just nothing quite like Buffy or Firefly or Serenity or Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along blog except for Buffy and Firefly and Serenity and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog. Overseeing the Buffy-verse through two television series and countless (five?) comic books (several still on-going) takes not only the ability to create something special, but the capacity to manage that special something in a direction that benefits what made that story special in the first place.
And it’s that combination that has paid off for Marvel. The first Avengers film was a success largely because Whedon was able to write a screenplay combing no less than five different “main characters” into a single story, all while maintaining the “main character”-ness of each member of the team. (That screenplay is actually an incredible accomplishment in cinematic storytelling and efficiency, let no one tell you otherwise. Movies do many things; some move you, others wow you. Avengers is not a great movie, but it executes a massive, sprawling, multi-dimensional multi-superhero multi-franchise epic damn near perfectly).
This May, Joss Whedon will release Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and there’s no reason to assume that film will let us down. I hope it is able to separate itself from the first Avengers-preferably by going really really dark. But still. This is what Whedon does well and he knows how to do it. So congratulations to Marvel. You got two films out of one of the best fantasy/sci-fi guys in the biz.
Moving on. Congratulations to Joss Whedon for getting out of the creative role at Marvel after Age of Ultron. That is great news. Not just for Whedon fans but for genre fans and movie fans in general. The world is better off when Whedon is telling original stories.
In an interview with Empire, Whedon was asked about whether he’d come back to helm another Marvel picture after Avengers 2. He said this:
I couldn’t imagine doing this again. It’s enormously hard, and it [will] be, by [the time I would make ‘Avengers 3 & 4′], a good five years since I created anything that was completely my own. So it’s very doubtful that I would take on the two-part Infinity War movie that would eat up the next four years of my life. I obviously still want to be a part of the Marvel Universe – I love these guys – but it ain’t easy. This year has been more like running three shows than any year of my life. It is bonkers.
In 2015, Whedon’s five year contract with Marvel will expire. And he’s been a crucial element in overseeing the phase 1 and 2 Marvel expansion, so it’s really no surprise to hear him say he’d like to stay on in some capacity. But to hear Joss Whedon longing to get back to his own worlds, that’s refreshing stuff.
He doesn’t need me to tell him this, of course, but the best thing for Joss Whedon going forward is to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind. I don’t know what he should do after (another small gem like Much Ado About Nothing would not be amiss) but getting back to what he can do when left to his own wiles is something many of us are anxious to see.
That sounds like a much better bargain for everyone than watching Whedon spend another five years of his life working on Avengers: Infinity War 1 and 2. I hope those films are good; I’m a Marvel fan after all. But I hope for much more from Joss Whedon than slinging Marvel movies for the rest of the decade.
