Joss Whedon Wants to Make 'Star Wars,' James Bond, and Catwoman Movies
After a three-year hiatus from the Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon has an itch to make some more franchise films. In an interview with Complex, the writer-director said he’d be psyched to take the helm of another tentpole film, if it were the right project — like, say, a Star Wars anthology movie.
“I mean, it’s a fun thing to do, to put yourself in the service of something if you think you can add an interpretation,” Whedon told the website. “So do I want to make James Bond movie? Yeah. Anne Hathaway does Catwoman again? Sure, I’m in. Do I want to make a Star Wars movie? Yeah. I was like, ‘I don’t want to make a Star Wars movie. Like, god dammit, why'” But I saw the trailer for Rogue [One, the December Star Wars spinoff] awhile ago and I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ To make a Star Wars movie and not be wed to the bigger picture.”
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Sure, he’s just rattling off ideas, but there are some fun possibilities here. For one thing, it sounds like Whedon, who wrote and directed The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, is willing to switch teams from Marvel to D.C. if Anne Hathaway reprises her role as Catwoman, which was undeniably the highlight of 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. The idea of him doing a Bond movie is also intriguing; Heaven knows the franchise could use an infusion of Whedon’s trademark snappy dialogue, not to mention some decent female characters.
But the big news for film nerds would be that Whedon is interested in making a stand-alone Star Wars film. Since he tends to gravitate towards projects with female leads, perhaps this would open up the possibility of a Princess Leia prequel?
Elsewhere in the conversation, Whedon, who wrote an unproduced Wonder Woman movie, said he was hopeful for the upcoming Warner Bros. film. “I want it to be good. The trailer was just wonderful,” he said of Wonder Woman (in theaters June 2017). “I’ll probably be disappointed, me more than anybody else, because I’ll be like, ‘Wow, my version…’ or whatever, but I can still get myself up for it. The trailer had her shield and her fire hammer and yep, I’m good, this will be fine, everything is good.”
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He also expressed disappointment at the complex reaction to his second Avengers movie. “Ultron was a difficult experience for me because it wasn’t so much of a backlash — it did really well — but it didn’t strike the same nerve in this country,” said Whedon. “More importantly, it fell out of the conversation very quickly. People just thought, ‘Oh, look did you see the prequel to Civil War? Yes, it’s pretty good.’ That broke me.”
Don’t worry, he’s not too broken: For the moment, Whedon is developing an original historical fiction/horror film set during World War II, and making celebrity-studded videos for his get-out-the-vote Super PAC Save the Day.
Watch Whedon describe the sexy scene between the Hulk and Black Widow in ‘Age of Ultron:’
