Joss Whedon
- Byname of:
- Joseph Hill Whedon
- Also Known As:
- Joseph Hill Whedon
- Notable Works:
- “Avengers: Age of Ultron”
- “The Avengers”
Joss Whedon (born June 23, 1964, New York, New York, U.S.) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and television series creator best known for his snappy dialogue and his original series featuring strong females in lead roles, including the cult TV hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003).
Whedon was raised in Manhattan the son of a television writer—who was himself the son of a television writer—and a high school teacher who was also a feminist activist. After finishing high school, including a brief stint at an exclusive boarding school in England, Whedon enrolled in the film studies program at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He graduated in 1987 and soon thereafter moved to Los Angeles to try to break into the film industry. His pitches failed to attract attention, and, though he was initially resistant to the idea, he managed to get some work in the “family business” of television writing, becoming a staff writer for the popular sitcom Roseanne in 1989. During this time Whedon continued to pitch his script for the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a horror-comedy about a teenage cheerleader who discovers that it is her destiny to become a superhuman defender of humankind. It was finally picked up for production in the early 1990s and was released in 1992, starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland. The film was much changed from Whedon’s original vision, and it was largely panned by critics, although there was some praise for Whedon’s script. On the merit of his writing, Whedon subsequently became a popular name for script doctoring and went on to contribute (with and without credit) to such films as Toy Story (1995) and Twister (1996).
Years after Buffy’s release, Whedon was given the opportunity to revisit his idea as a television series of the same name, which premiered in 1997 and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role. In addition to his role as series creator and producer, Whedon also penned many of the scripts and directed several episodes. This time the narrative realized his aspirations, and the show, which ran until 2003, became a cult hit. In 1999 Whedon introduced a spin-off series, Angel, which centred on the exploits of Buffy’s star-crossed lover, a vampire with a soul who acted as a private detective in supernatural crime cases. After Buffy’s end, Whedon continued the franchise in comic-book form, with the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (2007–11) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 (2011–13). He also contributed to existing comic-book series such as X-Men and adapted some of his other TV ideas into comics.
While Buffy and Angel were both still airing, Whedon undertook another original TV series, Firefly (2002–03), a sci-fi western about a small crew of space pioneers. The show was praised by critics but received poor ratings and was canceled in its first season. Despite this, DVD sales and fan reaction (especially on the Internet) were so strong that Whedon was able to extend the series with a full-length theatrical follow-up, Serenity, in 2005.
In 2008 Whedon made waves with a new miniseries, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a musical comedy about an aspiring supervillain that was released online in three installments. The low-budget Web production became a smash hit, and, despite not having aired on television (it was eventually broadcast in 2012), it earned an outstanding special class Emmy Award for best short-format live-action entertainment program. The following year Whedon returned to television with the science-fiction series Dollhouse (2009–10), which, like Firefly, received only a limited run before its cancellation.
After the series ended, Whedon returned to film, cowriting the script for the horror-comedy The Cabin in the Woods (2011) and writing and directing the blockbuster adaptation (2012) of the Avengers, the Marvel comic-book series. The latter proved to be a box-office smash, grossing more than $1 billion worldwide. Before completing work on that movie, Whedon also shot, in black and white, a low-budget modern-day version (2012) of the William Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing. He returned to the helm of the Avengers franchise for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Whedon continued to focus on the world of Marvel Comics, cocreating the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–20) and cowriting the screenplay for Justice League (2017).
Whedon later created The Nevers, a TV series about a group of female superheroes in Victorian London. In 2020, however, during production of the first season, he left the program, citing “the physical challenges of making such a huge show during a global pandemic.” At the time he was facing numerous accusations of abusive behaviour on previous projects. The Nevers debuted on HBO in 2021.
