Avengers director and fan favorite TV creator Joss Whedon said that he is “pissed off” about the lack of female superheroes in a recent interview.
Whedon, a self-avowed feminist, is hard at work on the early production stages of Avengers 2 but took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk to The Daily Beast about his perspective concerning the lack of female superheroes in film.
“Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, ‘You see? It can’t be done.’ It’s stupid, and I’m hoping The Hunger Games will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies,” he said.
Whedon took it one step further, continuing:
“It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched The Avengers and was like, ‘My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,’ and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: ‘If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.’ ”
With Scarlet Witch confirmed for the follow-up, it seems as though Whedon is using his influence to amend this disparity. With The Avengers raking in over $1.5 million at the world box office, it seems as though Whedon is in a sweet spot to make a positive difference in this regard.
Whedon also addressed rumors that Robert Downey Jr. won’t be returning for Avengers 2.
“He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making Avengers 2 without him , nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don’t think it’s in my interest, Marvel’s interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine,” he assured.
“But I know that this is Hollywood and you roll with things. You have to be ready for the unexpected. But I loved working with Robert, and everybody knows he embodied that role in a way no one else can. The day he was cast, I went up to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige and said, ‘You brilliant son of a bitch.’ ”
Do you agree with Joss Whedon? Are there too few female superheroes in film? Sound off!