Joss Whedon‘s been having a pretty good year. People have been regularly talking about how excited they are for Doctor Horrible 2 to finally happen, Cabin in the Woods was finally released, he got to gather all his friends into his home for two weeks during one of his vacations to film Much Ado About Nothing. Oh, and The Avengers. You might have heard of it. It was a modest little film. You know, the one that turned into one of the highest-grossing films of all time.
Well, now The Avengers is making its debut in Japan, and after some early PR speed-bumps, Joss is making the rounds, imparting some of that Whedon-Wisdom, and teasing us with little droplets of info about the Avengers 2.
One of our favorite things about Whedon has always been his ability to talk about his characters with the depth and loving tone of someone who really, truly loves that he gets to craft stories for a living. This was no different in his interview with Gizmodo. In this bit, he talks about the role the context of society’s more recent struggles may have played in the film:
Of course there’s a part of me that is tired of this world in which people are so conflicted with each other. Superhero comics and movies have implied the bad points of reality in a tough and satirical way. Messages like “Heroes don’t save anything”.
But I wanted to say “No, it’s heroic if everyone combines their strength and works together” through aesthetics in response to these old messages. That sort of thing may not be enough for today’s world, at least not in America. For some reason or another unity itself is treated somewhat like a joke. I think that’s the sort of thing everyone’s looking for.
Of course I thought about it, but it’s difficult to incorporate current events into the scenarios of a movie that’s going to be shown to the public in 2 years. What I wanted to create was an old fashioned movie like the ones I saw when I was a kid. It’s not that I think things were much better back then, but I do think there are some things that are lost in modern movies. As things that have such a strong cultural identity, they’ve become very inhuman things that are explosion after explosion.
But by looking back into the past, I wanted to grasp hold of more than just nostalgia, but the essence of the values that existed when I was a kid. I think that’s something that’s universal.
And on the research he did on the film:
I did an incredibly large amount of scientific research. I told the staff “Find me words that sound science-y”. I was an English major in college, so I approach movies from a very emotional perspective. At first I was literally writing “Science, science, science” in the dialogue and going back and to fill in the proper wording later. It was purely by good luck that there wasn’t anything in the movie that wasn’t based in realistic practice or theory.
We’ve heard him talk about his plans to “go smaller” for the Avengers sequel, and how he wants to delve even further into the character’s cores.
He mentions that he can’t really talk about the Marvel Comics TV series yet, but he uses the subject to turn it around and talk more about Marvel and his work with them:
If I could say one thing it would be that Marvel has brought new meaning to the entertainment industry with The Avengers. It’s not merely pride, but a particular way of thinking. It’s a very exciting thing.
I’ll be very deeply involved. My contract is not simply to make The Avengers 2, but to consult on the entire Marvel world view. So that’s why I’m involved in TV series as well. I’m talking with Kevin [Feige] about all of the future movies that will be released. They’ll all be great movies and we’re cooperating so that they all tie into The Avengers 2.
As for possible new characters in Avengers 2, there’s a rumor floating around that it’s the Wasp, which is a character Whedon admitted to almost including, but whom he ended up cutting. Maybe she’ll make an appearance in the next one?
It’s a pretty lengthy, and good, interview; you can read the rest of it in English here, and if you’re feeling ambitious (or if you speak the language), you can read the original Japanese version here.
(Bleeding Cool via Gizmodo)
