Joss Whedon
Whedon at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.
Born	Joseph Hill Whedon (1964-06-23) June 23, 1964 (age 48) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Wesleyan University (1987)
Occupation	Screenwriter, director, executive producer, composer, and actor
Years active	1989–present
Notable work(s)	Buffy the Vampire Slayer Angel Firefly Dollhouse Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog The Cabin in the Woods The Avengers
Style	Science fiction, Supernatural drama, Comedy-drama
Influenced by	Stan Lee, Tim Burton, Frank Herbert, Jean-Paul Sartre, Monty Python, Alan Moore, Stephen Sondheim, Ray Bradbury,[1] William Shakespeare,[2] Frances Hodgson Burnett,[3] Rod Serling,[4] James Cameron
Influenced	Patrick Rothfuss, Daniel Abraham, Russell T Davies
Board member of	Mutant Enemy Productions
Religion	None (atheist[5] and secular humanist)
Spouse	Kai Cole[6]
Children	Arden Cole Squire Cole[7]
Relatives	John Whedon (grandfather) Tom Whedon (father) Lee Stearns (mother) Samuel Whedon (brother) Matthew Whedon (brother) Jed Whedon (brother) Zack Whedon (brother)

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon^[8] ( /ˈwiːdən/;^[9] born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures. He is best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), Angel (1999–2004), Firefly (2002) and Dollhouse (2009–2010), as well as the short film Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008). Whedon co-wrote and produced the horror film The Cabin in the Woods (2012), and wrote and directed the film adaptation of Marvel's The Avengers (2012).^[10][11]

He is also notable for his work in film, comic books, and online media. Many of Whedon's projects enjoy cult status.^[12]

Early life[link]

Joss Whedon was born in New York City. He has been described as the world's first third-generation TV writer,^[13] as he is the son of Tom Whedon, a screenwriter for The Electric Company in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s.^[5][14] His mother, Lee Stearns, taught history at Riverdale Country School as Lee Whedon,^[15] and was an unpublished novelist.^[5] Joss Whedon is the younger brother of Samuel and Matthew Whedon and older brother of writers Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon.^[16]

Whedon graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987. Before going to Wesleyan he spent two years at Winchester College in England. He attended Riverdale Country School in New York City where his mother taught history.^[17] At a young age he was a prolific writer, loved Monty Python and showed great interest in acting.^[18]

Career[link]

Television work[link]

Following a move to Los Angeles, Whedon secured his first writing job on the television series Roseanne. After working several years as a script doctor for films, he returned to television, where he created four TV shows.

(From left to right) Tom Lenk, Emma Caulfield, Alexis Denisof, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, Whedon, Michelle Trachtenberg at the Buffy cast party.

Years after having his script for the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer produced, Whedon revived the concept as a television series of the same name. Buffy the Vampire Slayer went on to become a critical and cult hit receiving an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series in 2000. Buffy ran for five seasons on The WB Television Network before being relocated to the UPN Network for its final two seasons. Angel was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, featuring Buffy's vampire-with-a-soul ex-boyfriend as the title character. Angel debuted on The WB in September 1999 and ran for five seasons; during its first two seasons, Angel episodes were broadcast immediately following Buffy episodes.

In 2002, Whedon created the Space Western television series Firefly, which was broadcast on the Fox network. The series was canceled after only 11 of the 14 completed episodes were aired, many out of intended order. After the cancellation, Whedon wrote the script for a Firefly movie, titled Serenity. In early 2004 Whedon announced that it had been greenlit by Universal Studios, and the film was widely released in the United States on September 30, 2005. In the DVD release, Whedon discusses how Serenity would not have been made if not for the dedication of the Browncoats, fans of the series.

In late 2007, Eliza Dushku, with whom Whedon worked on Buffy and Angel, met over lunch to discuss possible ideas for a series for her to star in and came up with an idea which excited both of them.^[19] The show, Dollhouse, was announced by Fox in November 2008 to begin airing on February 13, 2009. Dollhouse was canceled after two seasons due to low ratings.

Whedon is also noted for his directing work in television, which includes two 2007 episodes of The Office ("Business School" and "Branch Wars"^[20]) as well as a 2010 episode of the musical series Glee ("Dream On") in which he reunited with his Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog star Neil Patrick Harris.^[21]

Although not an actor, he has made cameos in his own shows as well as others. He voiced a radio newsreader in the Buffy season one episode, "I, Robot... You, Jane". In the season two Angel episode "Through the Looking Glass", he made a cameo appearance under heavy makeup as Numfar, a character whose entire role was to perform comical dances. In Firefly, Whedon appeared as a guest at a funeral in the final produced episode, "The Message". He made a brief appearance as an overbearing rental-car clerk in an episode of Veronica Mars, "Rat Saw God", in 2005; Whedon is a vocal fan of Veronica Mars. He voiced himself in two episodes of Seth Green's television series Robot Chicken titled "Rabbits on a Roller Coaster" in 2007 and "Help Me" in 2008.

Feature films and video[link]

Whedon wrote or co-wrote several films, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Alien Resurrection and Titan A.E.. The song "My Lullaby" from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride was written by him and Seattle native Scott Warrender. He was nominated (along with six other writers) for an Academy Award for Toy Story's screenplay.

He also wrote uncredited drafts or rewrites of Speed, Waterworld,^[22] Twister and X-Men, although in interviews, Whedon disowned the latter two films.^{[citation needed]} He claimed that he had a good script for Alien Resurrection, which he felt was spoiled by its director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.^[23] Only two of his lines were kept in the final script of X-Men.^[24] Even the Buffy movie bore little resemblance to his original screenplay.^[25] According to Graham Yost, the credited writer of Speed, Whedon wrote most of its dialogue.^[26]

He wrote and directed 2005's Serenity, based on his television series Firefly. Serenity won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Beginning in January 2006, fans (with Universal's blessing) began organizing worldwide charity screenings^[27] called "Can't Stop the Serenity" (CSTS), a play on a line in the film: "You can't stop the signal", to benefit Equality Now, a human rights organization supported by Joss Whedon. Over $500,000 has been raised for Equality Now since 2006.^[28] As of May 1, 2011, 45 cities were registered for CSTS 2011 in 6 countries and 24 U.S. states.^[29]

With the cast of The Avengers, and Kevin Feige at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

In November 2008, Whedon guest starred in the premiere episode of The Write Environment, a direct to DVD series featuring in-depth, candid one-on-one interviews with some of TV's most prolific and well known series creator/writers.^[30]

Whedon wrote a horror film titled The Cabin in the Woods with Drew Goddard, which finished production in 2009. The film was produced by MGM, but once the studio went bankrupt, the film was held back. It was given a theatrical release on April 13, 2012 and was distributed by Lionsgate.^[31] Goddard directed the Whedon-produced film, which starred Bradley Whitford, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, and Richard Jenkins.^[32]

In April 2010, it was confirmed that Whedon would direct The Avengers, a live-action adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name.^[33] The film was released on May 4, 2012. To date, it had the largest opening weekend in history, with a record box office take of $207.4m, and is both the 12th film to surpass $1 Billion, and the 4th highest grossing film of all time. The film also received considerable praise from critics, scoring an aggregate 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

On October 24, 2011, Bellwether Pictures confirmed they had completed principal photography on an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing, which is directed and produced by Joss Whedon. It was filmed in 12 days in Santa Monica.^[34] Whedon is also the writer and producer of the upcoming paranormal romance film In Your Eyes. It is the second feature film under production by Bellwether Pictures.^[35][36][37]

Comic books[link]

Whedon, a lifelong comic book fan, is the author of the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Fray which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Whedon returned to the world of Fray during the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight arc, "Time of Your Life".^[38]

Like many other authors from the Buffy TV show, he also contributed to the show's comic book version: he wrote three stories in the anthology Tales of the Slayers (including one featuring Melaka Fray from Fray) and also the main storyline of the five-issue miniseries Tales of the Vampires.

The three-issue miniseries Serenity: Those Left Behind, based on the Firefly series and leading up to the film Serenity, was released June through August 2005. Co-written with Brett Matthews and pencilled by Will Conrad, the first issue featured covers drawn by John Cassaday, J. G. Jones, and Bryan Hitch, as well as other artists for the second and third issues. The first two issues went to a second printing. The trade paperback featured a new cover by acclaimed painter Adam Hughes.

A second three-issue Serenity miniseries Serenity: Better Days, was released in March, April, and May 2008. "Better Days" reunites Whedon, Matthews, Conrad, and Adam Hughes, who will provide all three covers. The three covers form a larger panorama of the ship's crew. "Better Days" is set before "Those Left Behind", and features the full crew of Serenity. A trade paperback featuring a cover by Jo Chen was released in October 2008.

Whedon and others have mentioned that more Serenity comics are planned for the near future, and will be based in the Firefly continuation of the series, including one about Shepherd Book.^[39][40][41] Likewise, Whedon and other former Buffy writers have released a new ongoing Buffy which takes place after the series finale "Chosen", which he officially recognizes as the canonical "Season 8". The first issue was released on March 14, 2007 by Dark Horse Comics. Following the success of issue one of Buffy season eight, IDW Publishing approached Whedon about similarly producing a canonical Angel Season 6.^[42] Angel: After the Fall has 14 issues published as of November 19, 2008 with 3 more to come following the adventures of Angel and his team after the TV series ended, where the title of the series will then change to Angel: Aftermath.^[43] Although Whedon has not had the time to write the series, he has served as executive producer with Brian Lynch, writing the season 6 story.^[44]

Whedon wrote Astonishing X-Men in Marvel Comics' popular line of comics about the X-Men but finished his 24 issue run in 2008 and handed over the writing reins to Warren Ellis. The title, recreated specifically for Whedon, has been one of Marvel's best-selling comics as of 2006 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards 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, X-Men: The Last Stand. Whedon also introduced several new characters into the Marvel Universe such as the villainous Ord, X-Men Ruth "Blindfold" Aldine and Hisako "Armor" Ichiki, Runaway Klara Prast and Special Agent Abigail Brand, along with S.W.O.R.D., the organization she commands.

Whedon is the second writer of the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite Marvel comic Runaways, taking over after series creator Brian K. Vaughan completed his run.^[45] Whedon had been a fan of the series for some time, and had a letter published in the first volume, which was included in the Volume 1 hardcover.

Whedon's other comic-related work includes writing the introduction to Identity Crisis trade paperback and a contribution to the "jam issue" Superman/Batman #26 (to date his only published work for DC Comics), writing short pieces for Marvel's Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man and Giant-Size X-Men #3 and also being the subject of an issue of Marvel Spotlight (alongside artist Michael Lark). He contributed as part of a panel of writers to Marvel Comics' Civil War crossover event, lending advice in how to tell the story and how to end it.

In February 2009, Astonishing X-Men #6, which depicted the return of Colossus to the title, and concluded Whedon's first story arc on that title, was named by Marvel Comics readers the #65 in Marvel's Top 70 Comics of all time.^[46]

Online media[link]

Whedon with Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris in September 2011

In 2005 he released a series of online shorts titled the R. Tam sessions, starring himself and Summer Glau, which served as a form of viral marketing for Serenity. In 2007, he launched a free webcomic, titled Sugarshock! hosted on Dark Horse comic's Myspace page.^[47]

In March 2008, Whedon teamed up with his brothers Zack Whedon and Jed Whedon, along with Jed's then-fiancée Maurissa Tancharoen to write, compose and produce the musical superhero spoof, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The musical stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Whedon conceived of Dr. Horrible over the year before and production took place over seven days during the Writers Guild strike. The project was freely available online from July 15 until July 20. In August, Whedon released a new Serenity/Firefly comic free online Serenity: The Other Half.^[48] In September, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack, made the top 40 Album list despite being a digital exclusive only available on iTunes.^[49] The Soundtrack was successful enough to pay its crew and all its bills.^[50]

In February 2009, he stated that after his series Dollhouse is over, whether by cancellation or reaching its end, that he plans on putting his efforts purely into on-line content like Dr. Horrible.^[51] In the Dr. Horrible bonus feature Commentary! The Musical!, Joss sings the song "Heart (Broken)" about the crippling scrutiny and commercialisation of producing fiction for a modern consumer audience.

Unrealized projects[link]

Whedon had a number of planned television projects that have become stuck in development or terminally stalled. Among these was a Buffy animated series, a set of made-for-television movies for The WB based on Angel and Buffy characters, and Ripper, a proposed BBC pilot about Rupert Giles. Ripper was announced to be in development at the San Diego Comic-Con 2007. The development process was set to begin in 2008 and Ripper to be shown that summer but the pilot has not materialized yet due to characters rights.^[52]

Early in his career Whedon sold two spec scripts that have not yet been produced, Suspension and Afterlife. He sold Suspension for $750,000 with an additional $250,000 if production commences.^[53] It has been described as "Die Hard on a bridge." A year later in 1994 he sold Afterlife for $1.5 million with an additional $500,000 if production commences. As of 2000 Andy Tennant was in talks to direct and rewrite.^[54] In Afterlife are precursors to many of the themes Whedon would later explore in Dollhouse. The script is about Daniel Hoffstetter, a government scientist, who awakes after dying to discover his mind has been imprinted on a mind-wiped body.^[55]

Whedon had been signed to write and direct Warner Bros.' adaptation of Wonder Woman but on February 3, 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."^[56]

Late in 2009, Whedon made a humorous bid of $10,000 for control of future Terminator material.^[57] He was rebuffed at that time and it is not known if he has plans to attempt this again.

[edit] Goners

Goners was announced in 2005. According to Variety magazine, it is a fantasy thriller under development by Universal Studios, and is to be produced by Mary Parent and Scott Stuber.^[58]

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.^[59]

From an 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.^[60]

Common themes and motifs in Whedon's works[link]

Strong women[link]

Whedon gives his mother, Lee Stearns, a feminist, credit for inspiring his worldview. When Roseanne Barr asked him how he could write so well for women, he replied, "If you met my mom, you wouldn't ask."^[61]

The character Kitty Pryde from the X-Men 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."^[62] Kitty Pryde was one of the main characters in Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men.

Whedon was honored at an Equality Now benefit in 2006: "Honoring Men on the Front Lines",^[63] and his fans raised a considerable amount of money in support of the organization.^[64]

Dialogue[link]

The dialogue in Joss Whedon's shows and movies usually involves pop culture references both notable and obscure, and the turning of nouns into adjectives by adding a "y" at the end of the word ("listy"). According to one of the Buffy writers, "It's just the way that Joss actually talks."^[65]

Whedon also heavily favors the suffix -age (Linkage, Lurkage, Poofage, Postage, Scrollage, Slayage).^[66] Also, phrasal verbs usually ending with "out" are changed into direct verbs, for example "freak" rather than "freak out", "bail" rather than "bail out", or "hang" rather than "hang out". Whedon also tends to change adjectives into nouns such as "happy", "shiny" (positive thing), "bad" (mistake), "funny" (joke) – for example, a character may say "I made a funny" instead of "I made a joke".^{[citation needed]} So many of Whedon's altered usages, new words, and heavily popularized words have entered the common usage that PBS in their article series "Do You Speak American" included an entire section on "Slayer Slang".^[67]

In an issue of Buffy Season Eight where Buffy travels to the future, Whedon writes Buffy's reaction to the future dialect of Manhattan; this allows Whedon to comment on Buffy's distinctive style of dialogue. "Buffy blames herself for what's happened to the English language, 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." ^[68]

Spiritual and philosophical beliefs[link]

Whedon has identified himself as an atheist on multiple occasions.^[5] When interviewed by The A.V. Club on October 9, 2002, Whedon answered the question "Is there a God?" with one word: "No." The interviewer followed up with: "That's it, end of story, no?" Whedon answered: "Absolutely not. That's a very important and necessary thing to learn."^[69] In one of the Buffy DVD commentaries, Whedon comments that "I don't believe in the 'sky bully'", referring to God under a name coined by his colleague Tim Minear.^[70] In addition, during a question and answer session found on the Serenity DVD with fans of the Firefly series at Fox Studios in Sydney, he identifies himself as an atheist and absurdist.

Whedon has also spoken about existentialism. On the Firefly DVD set, Whedon explains in detail how existentialism, and more specifically the book Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre, was used as a basis for the episode "Objects in Space".^[71] On this commentary he claimed interest in existential ideas and described the impact of Nausea on his early life.

Whedon also identifies himself as a humanist. In April 2009, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University presented Whedon with the 2009 Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.^[72]

Frequent casting[link]

Television credits[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]