Updated: Joss Whedon will return for Avengers 2
Disney and Marvel have confirmed that Joss Whedon will write and direct the sequel to The Avengers, which is due out in 2015...
Here's a brief bit of news that's sure to bring inspire a grin among fans of The Avengers: Joss Whedon will return to write and direct its sequel, Disney has confirmed.
Update: Marvel has released a statement, confirming Whedon's involvement in both The Avengers 2 and an ABC TV series:
"Joss Whedon has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015. As part of that deal, Whedon will write and direct Marvel’s The Avengers 2 as well as help develop a new live action series for Marvel Television at ABC. He will also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe."
The news came as part of Disney boss Bob Iger's earnings call to analysts. The Avengers earned around $1.5 billion, making it one of the top three biggest-grossing movies of all time. It's unsurprising, then, that Disney would want Whedon back, but it's a relief to hear that he's accepted; although doing another Avengers might sound like a logical career move for Marvel fans, Whedon was ambivalent about the prospect a few months ago, and appeared to be more keen to persue other projects.
Returning for a second Avengers, he said in an LA Times interview back in May, was "an enormous amount of work telling what is ultimately somebody else's story". Happily, Whedon's changed his mind.
The news that Whedon will be involved in an Avengers TV series is good news, too, particularly given his sparkling form with such shows as Buffy and Firefly. We're assuming this is the same series "set in the Avengers universe" rumoured a few months ago, but this isn't confirmed as yet.
For now, though, it's official: Whedon's on board for The Avengers 2, and the movie's pencilled in for a 2015 release.
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YES YES YES!!!!
Oh yes...except no substitute!
Huzzah. Plus it's still a few years away, so he's got time to squeeze another project in before then...
No Buffy movie. Shitter.
Accept.
Wow- this made me unbelievably happy. Oh glorious fandom!
Fantastic!
Mr Whedon is indeed a wise and generous man.I think this is good for Joss,the cast,Marvel,Disney and us.I know we can trust Joss to save the world.I'm almost as happy as i would be watching a new episode of Doctor Who or listening to Redd Kross' Researching the Blues.I'm patiently waiting for the DVD.I'ts not long now,really it isn't.It's just about a month away.
Helz to the effin yeah!
That'd be good. I was hoping he'd use his newfound status to make one of his 'own' projects.
I actually fist pumped when I seen this headline. I think that says enough!
He should have asked for a solid gold car while he was at it. They would have given it to him. They would have given him two!
Also, hell yeah! This is awesome.
Hmm, as long as the show is kept away from Fox TV it stands a chance to last longer than one or two seasons....
Would really like to see a 'street level' Marvel team show (Whedon does the best team shows) with Punisher, Moon Knigh, Iron Fist and Luke Cage (and Daredevil if Marvel get the rights back). Heroes for Hire!
Dear Hollywood, I know it is very difficult to think of new ideas, especially as the phrase "creative thinking" goes against the very ethics of being a Movie Producer, but you may have noticed there have been rather a lot of comic book movies of late. Personally I am very bored of them now. Yes, yes, I know I am in a minority and that the majority of cinema goers would prefer to see a Transformers/Avengers/Spider-Man movie released every year until the end of time, but there are a few of us who treasure movies as if they are something worthwhile, as if they are something to watch over and over again, as if it was… I don’t know… as if it was a “classic piece of cinema”. So perhaps you could go your way to making a few more films like ‘Jaws’, or ‘Psycho’, or perhaps even like ‘Back to the Future’?
Actually ‘Back to the Future’ is a good example of that "Creative Thinking" I mentioned earlier. Now, just imagine it is the early 80’s, you’re in a meeting, and the writer sat in front of you is talking about his brand new screenplay, it might go something like this..... "So this crazy old scientist guy, who is best friends with a seventeen year old high school kid, builds a time machine out of a Delorean, and the Kid is sent back to 1955 (at this moment, I imagine poor Robert Zemeckis is now wondering why he is outside Universal Pictures talking to the pavement, as the pages of his beloved screenplay flutters around in the breeze). “Shucks, I didn’t even get to the part where he makes out with his Mom!”.
Now, did you see what you did there Hollywood?! The short sighted money grabbing mentality you have now adopted since you figured out a very simple formula on how to make lots of cash, has resulted in the demise of that old creative Hollywood that entertained me so much in the 80’s and early 90’s. In essence, a film like'Back to the Future' would never be made in todays current climate.
Look, I have nothing against ‘The Avengers’, in fact I quite liked seeing Sean Connery dressed up in a bear suit, it made him even more lovable and cuddly than he was in ‘The Last Crusade’, but some of us wouldn’t mind seeing something a little bit different every now and then. Maybe a few more like that ‘Inception’ movie, (I know that Warner Bros. only made it because Christopher Nolan had that “Dark Knight” trump card), but as I remember, even that though it was a difficult “Brain Engaging” movie, it still made a load of money. So lets start using that old grey matter a little more often. (P.S. this is not a direct attack on 'The Avengers' as I'm sure it is very "Awsome!!!!").
I dream that when he's done with the Marvel universe, he'll have humungous clout in Hollywood & TV-land to do anything he wants.... and he brings back Firefly!
.... tis a dream, but a damn fine one. :'(
(sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff)
Brilliant news!
I wonder which TV series this is referring to, though - Hulk or SHIELD?
Why so serious?
Why not?
Indeed.
I'm largely with you on this, Dunkaccino. An original blockbuster would be marvellous. Avatar was original, of course, but mostly disappointing. I realise Avengers was ridiculously popular and successful, but most other Marvel films are pretty variable, and some were just shocking. And Transformers was awful too.
This post inadvertently raises a very interesting idea: Joss Whedon doing Doctor Who. I'm sure it'll never happen, and it would certainly be very different (read: un-British), but I'd still pay to see it.
One thing that I believe Joss captured so well in the Avengers was giving us characters that we actually cared about. It is something that is missing in the modern blockbuster and pop-corn flicks.
Joss Whedon is to the Avengers as Christopher Nolan is to Batman. Enough said. Hell of a lot of pressure on him now, though. The first film will take some topping. He mentioned that for a sequel he wasn't going to go for full on spectacle again, but make it more emotional and personal to the characters. I do believe this is a smart move, considering how recent events mean Marvel could soon have the rights to Fantastic Four again. Add in the group we had in movie one, plus the Guardians and a potential Ant-Man, and that's a lot of characters to juggle.