Joss Whedon Signs on for Avengers 2, Marvel TV Series

[Contradiction]

I dunno, considering the movie is based on "To steal an Antman" it could be really Lang-centric.

Did I miss something? Where did you hear this?

Can't remember the source exactly but I'm pretty sure Wright mentioned it around the same time they aired the test footage.

Actually yeah, as I remember it there was always a rumour it was based on something particular and Edgar revealed it at the screening. Although with the original script being 70s science adventures you've got to wonder how much got changed to make it compliant to the movieverse.

http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/2012/07/an-ant-man-movie-is-happening-for-reals-this-time/

Here's the first source I found on google you should me able to make your own way from there

 

[Tono Makt]

Anyone want to start placing bets on what fan-favorite character he kills off in the Avengers sequel?

That is the other thing Whedon is known for, right? Killing off beloved characters in heart-wrenching ways?

I don't see this as a potential problem; Whedon won't be working with his own characters and his own universe, and there will also be a huge tie-in for toys and other products. Killing off a beloved (but minor) character is fine in Buffy or Firefly, but when you have a toy lineup that includes Beloved Character, and Beloved Character is selling products, you aren't going to kill that character off because you risk losing a portion of those sales.

re: the entire situation

I'm ambivalent towards this. I was extremely disappointed with the Avengers movie as it turned Captain America and Thor into secondary characters as neither character fits well into Whedon's writing style - neither Thor nor Cap are the kind of characters who will toss off amusing one-liners, and so they were pretty much useless in the Avengers. After the Captain America movie made me find a love for Captain America, and the writers who found the perfect way to make Cap awesome, Whedon just wasted him entirely. I liked Thor in the Thor movie (and Loki, but everything else could be tossed in a dumpster) but he was just a punchline in the Avengers. Figuratively and literally.

So the idea of Whedon being in charge of an ongoing Avengers series... eh. If it introduces characters that are new to the Live Action Marvel universe, then this sort of an issue isn't going to be prevalent. So it could work out.

 

[Tono Makt]

Finally people are start to realize Whedon knows what he is talking about and makes great stuff.

He makes decent stuff that, until Avengers, appealed to a small but vocal group of fans. It is also vitally important to realize that Whedon came in to the Marvel movie universe after the groundwork was laid and the fans appetites whetted to ravenous. To use a baseball analogy, he came up to bat with the bases loaded, a tied game, no outs and a tired pitcher on the mound. All he had to do was avoid hitting a double play and he'd win the game. He hit a long single that scored 2 run because the runners were running before the pitch.

He did what he needed to do, and deserves credit for that. But no more than he deserves.

Capchta: "No means No." Preemptively stopping me needling of the <pre-censored>

 

[Something Amyss]

What's with the comic splurge as of late? Not that I'm complaining, but where did it come from?

it seems like the biggest movies of the year are always super flicks. Could we be entering a super hero renaissance?

We could if we were in 2007 or so.

 

[Spygon]

Finally people are start to realize Whedon knows what he is talking about and makes great stuff.

He makes decent stuff that, until Avengers, appealed to a small but vocal group of fans. It is also vitally important to realize that Whedon came in to the Marvel movie universe after the groundwork was laid and the fans appetites whetted to ravenous. To use a baseball analogy, he came up to bat with the bases loaded, a tied game, no outs and a tired pitcher on the mound. All he had to do was avoid hitting a double play and he'd win the game. He hit a long single that scored 2 run because the runners were running before the pitch.

He did what he needed to do, and deserves credit for that. But no more than he deserves.

Capchta: "No means No." Preemptively stopping me needling of the <pre-censored>

First Whedon co writes toy story one of the most popular animated films ever created.

then he comes out of no where with Buffy the vampire slayer that had an average 4.7mil viewers over 7 seasons that is a huge viewership for your first project.It instantly became a media sensation and you would be hard to find someone that has never heard of Buffy the vampire slayer.This came with a spin off Angel not as successful as Buffy that generated an average 4.4mil viewers that for a spin off was unheard of at that time.He won an Emmy for his writing for Buffy in 2000.


Then he made his true "cult" hit with firefly that did not really get off the ground when it was aired but generated a huge cult following when it had gone.That also lead to a full feature film.

After that Whedon makes the hugely popular Dr.Horribles Sing-along blog that took the internet by storm and received huge amounts of praise for the web series.

Now to your baseball analogy (stay with me because i dont know much about baseball)

But as you said the bases were loaded and an tied game.This game was probably the biggest of his life as you say the fans were ravenous all attention was on this film.If he had made one slip up the fans and critics would have pulled him to pieces.So he was under huge amount of pressure to pull this off all the time and effort that been built up for that moment rests on his shoulders.So all he has to do is step up and not fuck up while the whole world were waiting for him to do so.

The ball is pitched and he doesn't just pull it off.He smacks the ball straight out of the park for someone he made a film that was the 3rd biggest grossing film of all time.

If you can mention any other director/producer that has done anything like this then i will not say he deserves a ton of credit.But other wise this guy has had his hand in some of the most incredible media projects over the last 10 years.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

This makes me very happy.

Does anyone else have a feeling that Avengers 2 will be the most successful movie of all time? Avengers came pretty close to being that, and sequels to superhero movies usually do a lot better in the box office than their prequels.

Especially if it has Batman. But then again, this isn't Batman, but the Avengers was brilliant, and it probably will beat the first Avengers.


In short: YAY WHEDON

 

[Tono Makt]

Finally people are start to realize Whedon knows what he is talking about and makes great stuff.

He makes decent stuff that, until Avengers, appealed to a small but vocal group of fans. It is also vitally important to realize that Whedon came in to the Marvel movie universe after the groundwork was laid and the fans appetites whetted to ravenous. To use a baseball analogy, he came up to bat with the bases loaded, a tied game, no outs and a tired pitcher on the mound. All he had to do was avoid hitting a double play and he'd win the game. He hit a long single that scored 2 run because the runners were running before the pitch.

He did what he needed to do, and deserves credit for that. But no more than he deserves.

Capchta: "No means No." Preemptively stopping me needling of the <pre-censored>

First Whedon co writes toy story one of the most popular animated films ever created.

then he comes out of no where with Buffy the vampire slayer that had an average 4.7mil viewers over 7 seasons that is a huge viewership for your first project.It instantly became a media sensation and you would be hard to find someone that has never heard of Buffy the vampire slayer.This came with a spin off Angel not as successful as Buffy that generated an average 4.4mil viewers that for a spin off was unheard of at that time.He won an Emmy for his writing for Buffy in 2000.

Then he made his true "cult" hit with firefly that did not really get off the ground when it was aired but generated a huge cult following when it had gone.That also lead to a full feature film.

After that Whedon makes the hugely popular Dr.Horribles Sing-along blog that took the internet by storm and received huge amounts of praise for the web series.

Toy Story: Co-writer of the screenplay. Not the original story - he was working with characters written by other people, and was one of 4 writers credited for the screenplay and 8 writers overall. It's not his any more than Rosanne was his, or Alien Resurrection was his. He was involved, but it's not his. Not like Angel, Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible.

Regarding Angel and Buffy neither Buffy nor Angel ever cracked the top 50 shows watched for any single episode. So averaging 4.7 million viewers sounds great, but when it's regularly the 80th ranked show for the week, it loses the pop that it had. Like I said, it was popular with a small segment. Yeah, it won Emmy's, which isn't an easy thing to do. Most decent shows earn an Emmy or two if they last for more than 4 seasons, and I did say he made decent stuff.

Firefly could have become a great show, but it was cancelled far before its time. No argument there, and it's his true cult hit that eventually allowed him to make a full feature film for it.

Dr. Horrible is a good little production. It gains quite a bit from the sentiment that Whedon was screwed for Firefly and so there's a way to make up for it as well as hitting during the Writers Strike and made specifically to circumvent the strike, but it is a solid bit of writing and performing.

Now to your baseball analogy (stay with me because i dont know much about baseball)

But as you said the bases were loaded and an tied game.This game was probably the biggest of his life as you say the fans were ravenous all attention was on this film.If he had made one slip up the fans and critics would have pulled him to pieces.So he was under huge amount of pressure to pull this off all the time and effort that been built up for that moment rests on his shoulders.So all he has to do is step up and not fuck up while the whole world were waiting for him to do so.

The ball is pitched and he doesn't just pull it off.He smacks the ball straight out of the park for someone he made a film that was the 3rd biggest grossing film of all time.

Dude, I get it. You love Whedon. But he didn't hit it out of the park. He won the game. He didn't screw it up. But he didn't hit it out of the park. Yeah, we were all waiting for him to screw it up, we were all crossing our fingers that he wasn't going to screw it up, and we all were afraid that he was going to screw it up. Then he didn't screw it up. And we all rejoiced that he didn't screw it up. He hit the ball, he drove in the needed run. Now people are delirious with the post-game high of victory.

But the film has some very serious flaws. Not little flaws either, but serious flaws.

If you can mention any other director/producer that has done anything like this then i will not say he deserves a ton of credit.But other wise this guy has had his hand in some of the most incredible media projects over the last 10 years.

John Lasseter. (Pixar.)
Chris Nolan. (Inception, Batman trilogy, Memento.)
Michael Bay. (Transformers. I hate them, but if we want to talk about movies making money...)
Sam Raimi. (Spiderman, Spartacus)
James Cameron. (Avatar, Terminator TV series)
Jon Favreau. (Iron Man)
Peter Jackson. (Some fantasy trilogy, District 9)
Guillermo del Toro. (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth)

Those are just off the top of my head. And that's only in the Fantasy/Sci Fi genre. (I'm deliberately ignoring JJ Abrams because of personal biases.) There are many other writers and producers who are the equal of Joss Whedon and have been involved in brilliant media projects in the past 10 years.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

If its rehashed crappy rebooted poo like Ultimate Marvel, I will kill them all...... >>

 

[OriginalLadders]

...<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/5685-Wrongs-Rights>the licensing process to bring comic book characters to film doesn't apply to television shows. If we're very, very lucky, we might even see characters like Spider-Man or the X-Men that Marvel simply can't put in their films...

I like the sound of that. A Spider-Man whose actor can actually play Peter Parker, an X-Men where Cyclops isn't a whiny little *****, a Daredevil or Fantastic Four which don't completely suck.

I'm no fan of Joss Whedon, the Avengers is the only thing he's ever done that I've liked, but this is looking good.

 

[maninahat]

This makes me very happy.

Does anyone else have a feeling that Avengers 2 will be the most successful movie of all time? Avengers came pretty close to being that, and sequels to superhero movies usually do a lot better in the box office than their prequels.

Ah, the results are kind of skewered though, thanks to the hiked up, 3D tickets. Avengers didn't necessarily have more people watching it than previous block busters, but the box office figures were bumped up by the quantity of people (more than half the audience) paying out for the more expensive 3D viewings. And that isn't just because people were desperate to see this movie in 3D:

When I wanted to see Avengers in 2D, the local cinemas only provided two choices: 4:00 or 10:00 - All the peak times were in 3D, meaning folks would have to inconvenience themselves just to avoid paying for that expensive, obnoxious novelty. Utter bastards.

 

[crazyrabbits]

Toy Story: Co-writer of the screenplay. Not the original story - he was working with characters written by other people, and was one of 4 writers credited for the screenplay and 8 writers overall. It's not his any more than Rosanne was his, or Alien Resurrection was his. He was involved, but it's not his.

Well, if you want to get technical, Whedon has admitted in the past that the script that he wrote for Alien: Resurrection made it to the screen, more or less. He's said that it just didn't turn out how he wanted to be.

That said, I've given him a free pass on anything he does. I just hope he doesn't oversaturate the franchise. The rumors I've been hearing about Avengers 2 (specifically, that Marvel wants to cram in as many characters as possible - like the Guardians of the Galaxy - in order to push more merchandising) and Captain America 2 give me pause. I have little doubt, though, that he'll knock it out of the park.

 

[HHammond]

Hmmmm. As a massive fan of Whedon who was a bit disappointed by The Avengers, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I always felt that Whedon isn't great at film, he's much more at home on the small screen. The idea of him doing a marvel show could be pretty awesome, but personally I'm hoping he does something with his own characters.

However, if he does just do Avengers: The TV Series then I say this: RIP Hulk.

 

[faefrost]

Anyone want to start placing bets on what fan-favorite character he kills off in the Avengers sequel?

That is the other thing Whedon is known for, right? Killing off beloved characters in heart-wrenching ways?

ALSO:

Captcha check: "you are here"

Yes. Yes I am.

Well he doesn't do that every time. And he did just do it in Avengers, so we may actually skip a shock death in A2.

 

[Strazdas]

What's with the comic splurge as of late? Not that I'm complaining, but where did it come from?

it seems like the biggest movies of the year are always super flicks. Could we be entering a super hero renaissance?

The geeks too over the world (internet) while the nerds took over hollywood.
Superhero flicks are good in current times beucase its escapism. people want to escape to the world where justice still exists and there is somone ighting for them, superhero flicks usually give it just that. just like the monster flicks were popular during war era to escape the reality, now peopel escape reality by putting on the purple glasses, even if for 2 hours.

 

[Tono Makt]

Toy Story: Co-writer of the screenplay. Not the original story - he was working with characters written by other people, and was one of 4 writers credited for the screenplay and 8 writers overall. It's not his any more than Rosanne was his, or Alien Resurrection was his. He was involved, but it's not his.

Well, if you want to get technical, Whedon has admitted in the past that the script that he wrote for Alien: Resurrection made it to the screen, more or less. He's said that it just didn't turn out how he wanted to be.

That said, I've given him a free pass on anything he does. I just hope he doesn't oversaturate the franchise. The rumors I've been hearing about Avengers 2 (specifically, that Marvel wants to cram in as many characters as possible - like the Guardians of the Galaxy - in order to push more merchandising) and Captain America 2 give me pause. I have little doubt, though, that he'll knock it out of the park.

Alien: Resurrection didn't come to the screen anything like he envisioned, right. It turned into a movie so bad it's almost good as a horror-comedy. I don't hold this as a mark against Whedon, just as a counterpoint to praising him for Toy Story. If he deserves kudos for being a writer on Toy Story, then the same standard should apply for Alien: Resurrection.

As for the TV series, it will depend entirely on what characters he is allowed to write for, and how he decides to characterize them. Whedon has his strengths, the strongest of which is sharp inter-character banter based on escalating one-liners. As long as he keeps to characters who are known for this, he should be fine. If he tries to write for earnest and serious characters (like Captain America and Thor in particular) he`s going to be far less successful as that isn't his strength in writing.

Luckily Marvel has hundreds of characters that he can easily write for. Hopefully he sticks with them, and if he does this will be successful. Whether it knocks it out of the park or not remains to be seen.

 

[Caleb Winningham]

@Tono Makt

I would love to see Whedon's take on "Alias" aka Jessica Jones and Heroes for Hire. It would make sense given that it has a strong female protagonist and would be relatively cheap to make.

As you said though it'd be bad if he had to write for the more serious/stoic characters like Thor or Cap.

 

[Caleb Winningham]

.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Giggity. Seems our prayers to elevate Joss Whedon from human to demigod have been heard, and it's gong to happen. Though, we need to be careful here. We don't want too much Avengers. If we can get some new faces, air out some of the other heaps of characters in the roster without having to resort to the big ones we all know just because, then this could be great. If it ties into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then it would save studios from having to make big enormous films for each character.