It’s looking like Joss Whedon won’t be directing the two-part Avengers: Infinity War after Age of Ultron. The man’s exhausted from all the years spent honing his shared cinematic universe, but he did say that he wants to stick around at Marvel in some capacity. The question is, if not the Avengers movies, than what? Is the upcoming Captain Marvel on the docket? Whedon has made a career out of bringing a powerful female hero to the (small) screen, so might he do it again with the MCU’s first female-centric solo superhero movie?
BuzzFeed caught up with the director on the phone, after some comments he made months ago about the lack of female-driven blockbusters went public. Upon broaching the question of will he or won’t he direct the Captain Marvel movie, the master of the vague responses said:
Um, I would never rule anything out, because I like working here. By the same token, the biggest thing for me is that I need to do something that I create myself. It’s been way too long since I created a universe. … Captain Marvel I don’t know as well. There have been a few [versions] of her. I have the first issue of Ms. Marvel, back when she was that, and had the Farrah hair. My only issue with her is that she always felt sort of on top. She was very driven. A winner. I always like to dig into the soil of things to find my heroes, if I can.
Whedon has been one of the biggest advocates for more films and characters centered around women. Recently, everyone’s been talking about those particular words heard around the world, wherein he said that sexism and misogyny still persists throughout Hollywood, which is why there hasn’t been many widely released live-action films about super-heroines. He also claimed that the best Marvel characters are owned by Fox. He’s talking, of course, about the X-Men, which is probably why he included Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Fun fact, Whedon actually came in to work on the screenplay for the first X-Men movie, but most of his work was thrown out except for two lines: Storm’s line to Toad about getting struck by lighting, and Cyclops’ dick comment to Wolverine. So for the time being, Scarlet Witch is the closest thing he’ll get to playing in the X-Men world in the MCU.
As for Captain Marvel, she also has a connection to the X-Men universe: in the comics, she grapples with Rogue who permanently absorbs her powers after holding on for too long. The film seems like something right up Joss Whedon’s alley, but nobody can force him to do it if he’s not invested. Still, he should have a better reason for not wanting to do it than she’s too much of a badass.
