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Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, film and television director, film and television producer, comic book author, composer and actor. He is the founder of
and co-founder of , and is best known as the creator of the television series
(2009–10) and
(2013–present). Whedon co-wrote
(1995), wrote and directed
(2005), co-wrote and produced
(2012), and wrote and directed
(2012), the
of all time, and its upcoming sequel
Whedon is notable for his signature dialogue, which features dry
and heavy emphasis on . His work is permeated with themes of , , , and . He often uses
to define the trait of a villain, and his protagonists tend to be
who start out
but then regain control from
in order to fulfill a purpose.
His work in comic books includes , , , ,
and . He is also known for his collaborations in online media. Many of Whedon's projects have cult status.
From a family of screenwriters, he is the grandson of , the son of , and the half brother of
and . In May 2013, Whedon was awarded an honorary
from Wesleyan University.
Joss Whedon was born in New York City. A third-generation TV writer, Whedon is the son of , a screenwriter for
in the 1970s and
in the 1980s, and the grandson of , a writer for
in the 1950s. His mother, Lee Stearns, was a teacher at
as Lee Whedon, and was an aspiring novelist. Whedon is the younger sibling of Samuel and Matthew Whedon and older sibling of writers
and . At a young age he was a prolific writer, loved
and showed great interest in acting.
Whedon attended Riverdale Country School in New York City where his mother taught history. He then spent two years at
in England, and graduated from
in 1987, where he was awarded an honorary
decades later. After leaving Wesleyan, Whedon came up with the first incarnation of
called "Rhonda, the Immortal Waitress". Describing his educative experience, he took notice that "it was clear to me from the start that I must take an active role in my survival".
From 1989 to 1990, Whedon worked as a writer on the sitcoms
and . As a , Whedon worked as an uncredited writer on films like
(2000) and
(2001). X-Men reportedly contained only two dialogue exchanges of Whedon's contribution, but the final cut of Speed left in most of his dialogue. At the same time as script consulting, he wrote
(1992); the film that would precede the series, and
(1997), and co-wrote
(1995) and
(2000), the former of which earned him a shared
nomination for Original Screenplay. Whedon has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the released versions of the films Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Titan A.E. and Alien: Resurrection.
(From left to right) , , , , , Whedon and
at the wrap party.
In 1997, Whedon created his first TV show, . The series depicts , the latest in a line of young women called to battle against , , and other forces of darkness. The inspiration for the idea came directly from his aversion to seeing the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie". Whedon said he wanted to subvert the idea and create someone who was a hero. This conception came from "the very first mission statement of the show, which was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it". Whedon signified Buffy as "my voice, my avatar, my girl". The writing process came together from conversations about the emotional issues facing Buffy Summers, and how she would confront them in terms of her battle against supernatural forces. Whedon usually directed episodes from his own scripts that held the most cathartic moments in Buffy's story.
The series received numerous awards and nominations, including an
nomination for the 1999 episode "". The 2001 episode "" was nominated for a
in 2002, and the fall 2001 musical episode "" was nominated for a Best Dramatic Presentation
and a Best Script Nebula Award. The final episode "" was nominated for a Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Hugo Award in 2003. All written and directed by Whedon, they are considered some the most effective and popular episodes of the series.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was lauded worldwide for its influential
and impact on popular culture. Since the end of the series, Whedon has stated that his intention was initially to produce a "" television series and has acknowledged a corresponding “rabid, almost insane fan base" that subsequently emerged. In June 2012, Slate magazine identified it as the most written about popular culture text of all time. "[M]ore than twice as many papers, essays, and books have been devoted to the vampire drama than any of our other choices – so many that we stopped counting when we hit 200".
Published in June 2001,
was Whedon's first comic book series.
A lifelong comic book fan, Whedon authored the
miniseries Fray, which takes place in the far future of the . Like many writers of the show, he contributed to the series' comic book continuation, writing three stories in the anthology
(including the one featuring
from Fray), and the main storyline of the miniseries . Whedon and the other writers then released a new ongoing series, taking place after the series finale "Chosen", which he officially recognizes as the
. Whedon returned to the world of Fray during the season eight story arc "". Arcs and issues of season eight written by Whedon include "", "", "", "", "Time of Your Life", "Turbulence" and "".
was published from August 2011 to September 2013, for which Whedon wrote "Freefall, Part I–II" (with ).
As a result of Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's success, Whedon was allowed the opportunity to make his 1999 spin-off series, . David Greenwalt and Whedon collaborated on the pilot that was going to be developed for . During the series' early expansion, efforts were made by the network to mitigate Whedon's original concept. "", a precociously optioned second episode, was entirely abandoned due to the gloominess written into the script. The tone was consequently softened, establishing in the opening episodes
as an idealistic, shoestring operation. It follows
(played by ), who works as a private detective in order to "help the helpless".
It was praised for presenting a unique and progressive version of the
hero as a sympathetic vampire detective. The series was however at times referred to being lesser than its parent show, regularly dismissed in context of having been derived from a more popular original work. Despite this, it won a
for Best Network TV Series and the three episodes "", "" and "", were nominated for Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form in 2003 and 2005.
The WB Network announced on February 14, 2004 that Angel would not be brought back for a sixth season. Whedon said of the cancellation, "It was like 'Healthy Guy Falls Dead From Heart Attack.' I believe the reason Angel had trouble on The WB was that it was the only show on the network that wasn't trying to be Buffy. It was a show about grown-ups". An official continuation of the story came rather in the form of a comic book series. Following Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's successful eighth season,
approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical sixth season for Angel.
released 17 issues written by Whedon and . The title of the series then changed to Angel: Aftermath with its move to Dark Horse Comics. Although Whedon lacked the time to write its continuing run, he served as executive producer with Lynch.
Whedon followed Angel with the space western
(2002), starring , , , , , , ,
and . Set in the year 2517, Firefly explores the lives of the people who, on the outskirts of society, make their living as the crew of , a "Firefly-" spaceship. The series' original concept progressed after Whedon read , a book on the .
An ever present element was Whedon's injection of , writing into the show a historical analogy of the Battle of G the "Battle of Serenity Valley". Two of the main characters,
and , fought in the "Unification War" and were defeated by , an authoritarian regime. The beaten soldiers were called "" after the brown
they wore as their uniforms. Whedon said, "I wanted to play with that classic notion of the frontier: not the people who made history, but the people history stepped on – the people for whom every act is the creation of civilization". Firefly was written as a serious character study, encompassing what Whedon called "life when it's hard", and in elaboration was about "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things".
, who had worked with Whedon in the past, was selected to serve as the series' showrunner. The fusion of
motifs was not well received by critics. And despite critical praise in other respects, the show had an average of 4.48 million viewers at the time and was ranked 125th in , which led to the series' cancellation by Fox. Whedon took to
as a means of achieving a continuation of the story. Following Firefly was , a follow-up film taking place after the events of the . This developed into a
that led to novels, comic b all centered around the show's fictional universe.
magazine held a poll in 2005 to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever", in which Firefly and Serenity took first and second place, respectively. Since its cancellation, the series acquired cult status.
In 2004, Whedon created the popular comic book line . He finished his 24 issue run in 2008 and then handed over the writing reins to . The title, recreated specifically for Whedon, has been one of Marvel's best-selling comics and was nominated for several
including Best Serialized Story, Best Continuing Series, Best New Series and Best Writer, winning the Best Continuing Series award in 2006. One storyline from this comic, the notion of a cure for mutation being found, was also an element in the third X-Men film, . In February 2009, Astonishing X-Men #6, which depicted the return of
to the title, and concluded Whedon's first story arc, was named by readers as the #65 in Marvel's Top 70 Comics of all time.
Whedon is the second writer of the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite Marvel comic , taking over after series creator
completed his run. He had been a fan of the series, and had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover edition.
He wrote short pieces for
and Giant-Size X-Men #3, and was the subject of an issue of
(alongside artist ). He also contributed as part of a panel of writers to Marvel Comics'
crossover event, lending advice in how to tell the story and how to end it.
Whedon introduced several new characters into the
such as the villainous , X-Men
and , Runaway , and
along with , the organization she commands.
After Universal Pictures acquired the
from Fox, Whedon started writing the screenplay for Serenity. Transforming the series into a film, he says, "...was the hardest piece of writing I've ever done ... It had to be self-contained and work as a movie, which meant I had to cope with problems like introducing nine main characters who'd already met!" The script was based on unused story ideas for Firefly 's unfilmed second season. On writing the dialogue, Whedon felt that part of it came from "getting to invent the language", which "once I had, reads like a kind of poetry". The narrative of the story centers on Captain Malcolm Reynolds—"the hero"—accompanied by
acting as "the catalyst for what he does". The
focused on the latter character's past, serving as a form of
for the film, starring himself and Summer Glau.
The score was composed by , and according to Whedon was intended to "deglorify space – to feel the intimacy of being on a ship as opposed to the grandeur". He used two
shots for several minutes of the film's opening sequence to establish "a sense of safety in space". In 2006, it won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. The elements of science fiction that Whedon wanted to convey were essentially different in kind, and held "a sort of grittiness" and "realism", which he said, together, "get the most exciting kind of film-making". Like Firefly, the film contained a statement on . Critic
observed, "Like
and , the movie plays like a critique of contemporary society, with the Alliance as Big Brother, enemy of discontent". The film received the 2005 , the 2006 , and was voted the best sci-fi movie of all time in a poll set up by . There have since been multiple rumors regarding sequel possibilities.
A limited three-issue comic book series called
was released in 2005 as a tie-in to Serenity. Set between Firefly and the film, it was intended to bridge the two storylines together. The story was written by Whedon.
also spanned three issues, and was written by Whedon and . Whedon later co-wrote
with his half-brother .
As a guest director, he contributed two 2007 episodes of
("" and "") and a 2010 episode of
(""). Denoting this period, Whedon has said, "I had free time, but I'm pretty sure I mean my career was on the skids".
Whedon, in collaboration with , created the free webcomic titled , as part of the revival of , which was launched on . Whedon later executive produced another free comic book on the Internet, Serenity: The Other Half.
Whedon with the cast and crew of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog at its
theater screening.
As a response to the , Whedon directed, co-wrote and produced
(2008). It tells the story of Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain, who shares a love interest in a girl named Penny with his nemesis, Captain Hammer. To Whedon the miniseries was "always meant to be a project of love", and an accomplishment "that's gonna really make us excited, that's gonna be our passion, and our ridiculousness". His half-brothers Zack and
and sister-in-law
share the other writing credits. Whedon said working with family members provided him with "a glorious surprise" once it became apparent "how much we were all in sync".
After having attended meetings with companies discussing the prospect of producing something for the Internet, and faced with negative feedback on his ideas, "It became clear that nothing was going to happen with this company before the strike was over". Whedon funded the project himself with the investment of just over $200,000, and enjoyed the independence gained from it, saying there was "freedom to just let the dictates of the story say how long it's gonna be. We didn't have to cram everything in ... we put in the amount of story that we wanted to and let the time work around that". He and Jed composed the music, parts of which were influenced by .
About its place in changing the approach for content on the web, he said, "The idea was, we’ll do it for fun, and if our fun for some reason causes other people to have fun, and they end up paying for that, then I will actually have the opportunity to create a different paradigm of payment and
for writers and artists involved in the project". "We all know that the mediums are shifting and that television is struggling to figure out how the rise of the computer is going to affect it". Whedon was awarded Best Directing and Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series at the , a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form, and a
the following year.
In 2009, Whedon created his fourth television series , and explored themes throughout the show that were initially present in an unproduced
of his called Afterlife. The series follows Echo, an "Active" programmed for various purposes, on her journey towards self-awareness. As stated by Whedon, Dollhouse was about "the sides of us that we don't want people to see", "the idea of " and, on some level, "a celebration of " because "perversion, like , is the thing that makes people passionate and interesting and worthy".
Despite low ratings in its first season, the series was renewed for a second and final season. The reason for the renewal given by Fox's president of entertainment was, "if we'd canceled Joss's show I'd probably have 110 million e-mails this morning from the fans". In reflection of Fox's disruptive involvement, Whedon explained, "I had the idea of . I had the idea of
. But I lost one or two essential things. And that ultimately killed the show because we were dancing around them" and "when that fell out, when the show turned into a thriller every week, it took something out of it that was kind of basic to what we were trying to do".
Whedon co-wrote and produced a horror film titled
with director , which finished production in 2009. Whedon and Goddard both intended to make a film "that was about horror movies while being a straight-up, good fun and scary horror movie". The script was written in three days, producing a minimum of 15 pages a day. Whedon described it as an attempt to revitalize horror, calling it a "loving hate letter" to the genre, continuing:
On another level it's a serious critique of what we love and what we don't about horror movies. I love being scared. I love that mixture of thrill, of horror, that objectification/identification thing of wanting definitely for the people to be alright but at the same time hoping they'll go somewhere dark and face something awful. The things that I don't like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into
and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances. Drew and I both felt that the pendulum had swung a little too far in that direction.
Part of what Whedon thought distinguished it from other horror films was that "people are not expendable. As a culture, for our own entertainment, we tend to assume that they are". He stated that the idea started as "a logical extension of what I think about horror movies", and reiterated his sentiment that the introduction of torture porn into this genre was "becoming this extremely nihilistic and misogynist exercise in just trying to upset you, as opposed to trying to scare you".
Whedon with the cast of The Avengers and
at the 2010 .
The Avengers
In July 2010, it was confirmed that Whedon would write and direct , a live-action adaptation of the superhero team . On his desire to take on the film, he said, "It goes back to the very first incarnation of The Avengers, it goes to , it goes to everything about it. It makes no sense, it's ridiculous ... Ultimately these people don't belong together and the whole movie is about finding yourself from community. And finding that you not only belong together but you need each other, very much. Obviously this will be expressed through punching but it will be the heart of the film".
About the cinematography, DP
said that he and Whedon "were keen on having a very visceral and naturalistic quality to the image" and "wanted this to feel immersive and did not want a 'comic book look' that might distance an audience with the engagement of the film". They took use of the digital camera
when shooting the film. Whedon commented on the conversion of The Avengers , saying that "current 3D conversion technology is really amazing, and Marvel is very picky. Having a sense for things in a 3D space and filming while feeling that space was a very easy thing for me. I’m just tired of seeing just things flying toward the camera. So I had to make things look good for 3D in 2D. My eyes and senses work that way, so the conversion from 2D was no problem". The music, Whedon said, "is very old-fashioned, which is why
was letter-perfect for this movie because he can give you the heightened emotion, the
school of 'I'm just feeling a lot right now!' but he can also be extraordinarily cue and character specific, which I love".
It became the
of all time at the North American box office, and received considerable praise from critics. But in retrospect, Whedon thought the film had "imperfections". "When I think of a great film, I think of something that's either structured so perfectly like
' ' or made so lovingly like
'. ' ... The thing I cared most about—making a summer movie like the ones from my childhood—is the thing that I pulled off".
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In March 2012, Whedon stated that although television involves more compromise than film:
I think, ultimately, gun to my head, TV is the place. Being able to spend years with a character, to really develop them, to understand them, to challenge the actor, to learn from the actor, to work with a team of writers – that experience is so fulfilling. The idea of putting something out there and letting it grow is really exciting.
In August 2012, Whedon signed a deal to develop the
for . The series focuses on the secret military law-enforcement agency featured throughout the . Created by Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, he stated that while the show involves individuals who possess powers within the spectacle of science fiction, it also focuses on "the peripheral people ... the people on the edges of the grand adventures". In the same vein, Whedon describes the lead character of
as "low-key, he's never overselling, and then when he turns out to be the smartest person in the room, everybody else is like, 'Oh...' And you can't buy that. You can't train for it. Some people just have it". The character's resurrection for the series since his death in The Avengers was said to have begun with "the idea of the Little Guy", which Whedon felt meant something he was "very fierce about", saying "there has never been a better Little Guy than . That intrigued me, this world around the superhero community. ... It's the more intimate stories that belong on television that we can really tap into the visual style and ethos, and even some of the mythology, of the Marvel movies".
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Whedon returned to write and direct a , following the deal with Marvel Studios, which will expire in June 2015. On the matter of approaching a sequel, Whedon reasoned not to go "bigger", but "deeper". "Now you can really spend your time just digging in. And by digging in, I mean with a scalpel to cause pain". He said of the film's characters, "Strong but damaged by power describes every person in this movie. It may, in fact, describe what the movie is about. You know, the more power that we have, the less human we are".
Whedon also served as a creative consultant on the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading up to Age of Ultron. He rewrote some dialogue for , directed the mid-credits scene of , and suggested that
"weirder" after reading an early draft. That he would return to make another sequel, Whedon said was unlikely, stating that he "couldn’t imagine doing this again". He continued, "I haven’t created my own universe for over five years. That feels wrong". Explaining his plans for the future, Whedon proceeds to say, "One person. Can’t stress that enough. Movie about one person — not a team, not 10, just one".
To create , Whedon established . On October 23, 2011, he confirmed they had completed principal photography. The film was scripted, produced, directed, edited and composed by Whedon, based on 's . Whedon's idea to adapt the play for the screen originated from having "Shakespeare readings" at his house with several of his friends, years prior.
He filmed it in black-and-white on digital video over a period of 12 days at his residence in Santa Monica, California. Whedon and his DP Jay Hunter took advantage of
in order to make it feel "very found", noting, "Our lighting package rose in the east and set in the west". Using mirrors, glass and windows to shoot through, he explains, "[It's] something I'd like to do all the time, but particularly in a movie that's all about lies, and manipulation and misunderstandings. The more you can warp the frame a little bit, the more it speaks towards what's going on".
Despite the play's comedy, he discovered that there were elements in the text "of debauchery" that brought out a core darkness, and said the visual nature of
influenced him to permeate a motif of sexuality into the script. Working with the actors, Whedon determined that, although giving them notes for guidance, "...what I understand is what an actor wants to know. 'Why am I doing this, and how should it come out?' And 'Will I be safe to try something strange?' And 'Will I be asked to do more?' I don't come at it from any other standpoint than that".
Whedon wrote and executive produced the paranormal romance film , the second feature by Bellwether Pictures. The film tells the story of Rebecca Porter and Dylan Kershaw who can feel each other's emotions, but are ultimately strangers. Whedon's script marked a theme of human connection as the metaphor for the couple's mysterious link. He conceived the idea in the early '90s, and had written drafts of the screenplay since then.
In summer 2014, Whedon encountered artist Shawnee Kilgore on . He said of her project, "I really loved the music and the sound of her voice". Whedon funded her album shortly after. When Kilgore contacted him about his fulfillment reward, he suggested they make a song together. She agreed, and received lyrics to one called "Big Giant Me". To Whedon, the song epitomized "the idea of change, and how much someone will accept you for yourself and what you are and what you’re going to become". The collaboration was then repurposed into producing an .
Early in his career, Whedon sold two
that weren' Suspension and Afterlife. He sold Suspension for $750,000, with an additional $250,000 if production had commenced. In September 2014,
suggested the script was being made, with
attached to the project. In 1994, he sold Afterlife for $1.5 million, with an additional $500,000 if production had commenced. In 2000,
was in talks to direct and rewrite. In Afterlife there were precursors to themes Whedon would later explore in Dollhouse. The script was about Daniel Hoffstetter, a government scientist, who awakes after dying to discover his mind has been imprinted on a mind-wiped body.
Whedon had a number of planned
that became stuck in development or terminally stalled. Among these were , a set of television movies for The WB based on Angel and Buffy characters, and Ripper, a proposed BBC pilot about .
Goners was announced in 2005. According to
magazine, it was a fantasy thriller under development by , and was to be produced by
and . When asked about the film itself during an interview, Whedon said, "It is a fantasy thriller, it is pretty dark and it's all me. So people will pretty much know what that means if they look at my body of work. But it's a new universe set in the present day with a new concept for me and a new bunch of characters. It's been a long time since I got to do that, so that's really fun". From a 2006 interview with Fanboy Radio: "I've been seeing a lot of horror movies that are torture-porn, where kids we don't care about are mutilated for hours, and I just cannot abide them... it's an antidote to that very kind of film, the horror movie with the expendable human beings in it. Because I don't believe any human beings are".
Whedon was hired to write and direct a
adaptation of . However, in February 2007, Whedon announced that he would no longer be involved with the project. "We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time". Conversely, he stated, "The fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time. We never [wanted] to none of us knew that".
Wastelanders, a web-based "end-of-the-world" project, once in development with author , was postponed due to Whedon's preoccupation with . Calling it "a dark piece", he proceeds: "I'm just like, 'Gosh, well, if I'm going to finance this and put it together, it's kind of dangerous.' It's not going to have a soundtrack album, it's not going to have all these revenue streams. It's going to be something that I put out there because I feel like I have to, and I don't have to rely on anybody else to let me".
, Whedon's films and TV series feature several allusions to components in , , , , powerlessness, , , ,
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they're just setting up the next person's lines, then you don't get dialogue: you get soundbites.
—Whedon on giving each character a distinct voice.
Whedon's works usually revolve around an ensemble of , primarily focused on a
who ends up working with others to accomplish a goal. He says of the recurring aspects of community, "Everything I write tends to turn into a superhero team, even if I didn't mean for it to. I always start off wanting to be solitary, because a) it's simpler, and b) that isolation is something that I relate to as a storyteller. And then no matter what, I always end up with a team". Examining a typical motif, he says, "I tend to write about people who are helpless or out of control who then regain or retake control".
Speaking about his approach to screenwriting, Whedon has noted outlining and
as the hardest parts of storytelling, but emphasizes that he feels they are "completely essential". He elaborates, "With The Avengers, the structure nearly killed me. It was very difficult to make it flow and cohere in terms of all the changing perspectives and characters, all these movie stars, all these beats to hit. It's a ridiculously complex puzzle. But once you’ve got the puzzle, and you’re just filling in the voices and coming up with the moments, that's what's fun".
Lauded for his way of writing dialogue, many of Whedon's altered phrases and heavily popularized words have entered a common usage called "", which
included an entire section of in their article series . In an issue of , where Buffy travels to the future, Whedon writes Buffy's reaction to the future dialect of M this allows Whedon to comment on the series' distinctive style of dialogue. "Buffy blames herself for what's happened to the , and there's a lot of hubris in that joke. I like to think that adding Y's to words that don't usually have Y's is going to destroy the whole fabric of our society". His use of self-aware dialogue to humanize characters, treating clichés subversely and the recurring theme of self-sacrifice led by subverting
have been defining to his style of storytelling.
His penchant to kill off characters has been widely criticized. Whedon has admitted extreme tiredness to the criticism, explaining, "The percentage of people who die... is a lot. I think it's pretty near everybody. The percentage of people that I kill – not so many. I think the reason that my rep is so nasty is that I tend to do it... unexpectedly, or to someone people are recently invested in, and that is a real mission statement for me, because, death doesn't leave a card. Death doesn't take Hitler. It doesn't work according to story plans. And when a death feels like a loss, gives you grief... then you have told a story that involves death".
Whedon has kept ambivalent on whether to shoot on
or , saying that he has "no allegiance to film as film. If the story is in front of me, I’m fine". In terms of visual aesthetics, he prefers to incorporate as many
as possible when using , saying, "I don't think it looks good if it doesn't look real. That veracity is the most important thing. You want to feel like this is definitely happening. I am very strict about letting people feel the space that something's happening in, and the environment has got to be a key part of it. Generally you just try to mix just as much practical with CGI as possible, so people really don't know where one begins and the other ends". On working with , he remarked that both offer "the exact same job. The money has never mattered. If you have $100 million, if you have $100,000, you're trying to hit someone in the gut with an emotional moment. If you can back that up with an awesome visual, that's really neat. If you can back that up with a visual that's not awesome, but at least gets it done, tells them what they need to know to hit them in the gut emotionally, that's neat too. If the characters can only talk about it in a room, then the emotional moment has to be really, really good, but it's still neat".
Whedon has cited , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
as influences. When asked about his five favorite films, Whedon listed
(1999) and
Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the
that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.
—Whedon's 2006 Equality Now speech.
Elements of feminism are present throughout all of Whedon's work, which he gives his mother credit for inspiring. When asked how he could write so well for women, he answered "If you met my mom, you wouldn't ask". The character
comics was an early model for Whedon's strong teenage girl characters, "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don't know what it was. She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it". Kitty Pryde later played a central role in Whedon's run on . In response to perennially being asked why he writes such , he famously replied, "Because you're still asking me that question".
In college, Whedon studied the theory called "", a concept he says observes "a fundamental thing that women have something men don't, the obvious being an ability to bear children, and the resilience to hang in as parents. I don't understand why or how anyone ever pulled off the whole idea of 'women are inferior'. Men not only don't get what's important about what women are capable of, but in fact they fear it, and envy it, and want to throw stones at it, because it's the thing they can't have". In 2007, Whedon expressed his outrage over the , and because the act was caught on video, was prompted to attack the underlying attitude he felt led to the murder, comparing the video to . He wrote, "[Womb envy is] entirely true. How else to explain the fact that cultures who would die to eradicate each other have always agreed on one issue? That every popular religion puts restrictions on women's behavior that are practically untenable? That the act of being a free, attractive, self-assertive woman is punishable by torture and death?"
In late 2013, Whedon spoke at an Equality Now event, where he issued a pointed dissection of the word "". He begins to say, "I have the privilege living my life inside of words ... but part of being a writer is also living in the very smallest part of every word". Arguing against the suffix "", he continues, "you can't be born an –ist. It's not natural". Whedon explains that because of this, the word "includes the idea that believing men and women to be equal ... is not a natural state. That we don't emerge assuming that everybody in the human race is a human. That the idea of equality is just an idea that's imposed on us..." This sparked an unfavorable reaction from the feminist community, but also an appreciation for Whedon's arguments' thought provocation.
News website
released in 2015 an interview they had conducted with Whedon, during which he criticized the entertainment industry for its "genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny". He added, "You hear, 'Oh, [female superheroes] don't work because of these two bad ones that were made eight years ago,' there's always an excuse". Whedon exemplified
film series as an argument for the female led franchise, and hoped
would be a part of undertaking the same bearing. He admitted however that "most of the best [female characters] in
are owned by "; referring to the
film rights. After his comments went , Whedon responded: "It's a struggle. You’ll always be able to rattle off the names of the female-driven genre films, and the rest are all male, and generally
men. I think the success of the young-adult trilogies that are usually not only female-driven but have a romantic bent — and are not necessarily about the spectacle of action but contain it — is great ... We can evolve
more quickly if we come at it from different ways".
Whedon often hires the same actors for his projects, and has been described as "the gravitational center of the Whedonverse, a galaxy that spins recurring actors and themes through an orbital system of TV shows, films and comic books that all share similar traits: a unique brand of witty dialogue, relatable characters and fantasy/sci-fi mythology".
Note: Due to the frequency Whedon casts the same actors in various projects, the above list only includes those that have played three or more different roles in a Whedon production (actors that have only played the same role in multiple Whedon productions are not included).
Whedon is married to Kai Cole, producer and co-founder of . They have two children and live in Los Angeles.
In 2013, Whedon revealed that he suffers from . This arose during the time that followed the completion of Much Ado About Nothing, which was made in the span of a two-week vacation from The Avengers, and after making the pilot for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. amidst the pre-production for Avengers: Age of Ultron. "It is actually a problem. Sometimes it's adorable ... and sometimes it's not ... Not to get all dark and weird, but it is something I need to address".
Whedon has identified himself as an ,
and . In April 2009, the Humanist Chaplaincy at
presented Whedon with the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.
Whedon has spoken about , explaining in detail how it, and more specifically 's , was used as a basis for the Firefly episode "". He called it "the most important book" he ever read, and said it was handed to him right after he saw 's , whose impact, he recalls, had made him an existentialist.
In July 2012, at the , in response to one woman who noted the
themes in many of his movies, and asked him to give his
in 30 seconds or less, Whedon spoke out against both the
he was brought up listening to and
as well, stating that "ultimately all these systems don't work". He went on to say that America is "turning into Tsarist Russia".
in the , Whedon satirically equated 's future as president with a , "Romney is ready to make the deep rollbacks in health care, education, social services and reproductive rights that will guarantee poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, disease, rioting—all crucial elements in creating a nightmare zombie wasteland".
In 2015, Whedon signed a petition as part of a political campaign calling for
to run for .
Main article:
Whedon has written, directed and produced a number of films and television series.
Title of work
episode: ""
Saturn Awards
Best Writing
(shared with )
Saturn Awards
Best Director
The Avengers
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interview (First) () (, )
The A.V. Club interview (Second) () ()
Comeford, AmiJo and Burnett, Tamy (editors) (2010) The Literary Angel: Essays on influences and traditions reflected in the Joss Whedon series McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina,
Davidson, Joy and Wilson, Leah (editors) (2007) The psychology of Joss Whedon : an unauthorized exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly BenBella Books, Dallas, Texas,
Espenson, Jane and Wilson, Leah (editors) (2010) Inside Joss' Dollhouse: completely unauthorized, from Alpha to Rossum Smart Pop, Dallas, Texas, ISBN
Havens, Candace (2003) Joss Whedon: The genius behind Buffy BenBella Books, Dallas, Texas,
Koontz, K. Dale (2008) Faith and choice in the works of Joss Whedon McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina,
Leonard, Kendra Preston (editor) (2010) Buffy, Ballads, and Bad Guys Who Sing: Music in the Worlds of Joss Whedon Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland,
Waggoner, Erin B. (editor) (2010) Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon: New essays McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina,
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