It’s official: Joss Whedon, King of Fandom, has signed on to write and direct the sequel to Marvel’s smash hit The Avengers, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. But that’s not all: In addition to his work on the next Avengers feature film, Whedon will be helping to develop that new live-action Marvel series at ABC that we’ve been hearing so much about. Joss Whedon is coming back to television.
We have to admit, when we were writing this post yesterday we were hoping in the back of our minds that the super-secret super-respected writer del Toro mentioned was Whedon. And, well, this is close enough for us.
Whedon signed on for a two-year exclusive contract with Marvel; he will continue to manage/direct/write/champion the franchise of the most successful superhero movie of all time, and just in general will “also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe,” according to Marvel’s statement last night.
We’re still (excuse the wordplay) marveling at the fact that Whedon signed an exclusive contract with the company. This means that Whedon will not be able to do any other new TV or film projects until 2015. Which would make sense if you’re talking about essentially any other writer/director, as Avengers is such a monstrously huge project to undertake that most people would probably buckle under the pressure of just the one film. But this is Joss Whedon we’re talking about; he shot an entirely different film during his only two weeks off from the first Avengers production.
The exclusivity should not get in the way of Whedon’s current to-do list, though, so rest easy; we should still be getting Dr. Horrible 2 (please oh please; Marvel, we will be having words if we do not), and we’re definitely getting Much Ado About Nothing.
We’re kind of already crazy-excited for The Avengers 2; If there’s anybody whose creative integrity we think can stand up to a big-budget sequel, it’s Master of Long-Form Storytelling Whedon (are we the only ones who call him that?).
We’ve also been begging the universe for years to bring him back to the television world; despite how much we love what he did with Avengers, we still think that’s where he shines. And while we still hold out hope that one day he’ll find a home at a nice cable network that will let him explore creatively and be less likely to crush our dreams with cancellation, we’re just always psyched for more Joss.
(via LA Times, Blastr, Comics Beat, MTV, Hollywood Reporter)
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