Joss Whedon Nerd HQ

Well, it seems that Joss Whedon might not be entirely done with playing with other people’s toys. Despite all of the press following ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ wherein he talked about the burdens of studio pressure, fan expectations, and dealing with so many characters on screen and how he was done working on big franchises, it seems that all of the good hype and amazing trailers for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ might have changed his mind on the subject. According to Whedon:

“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. It’s no different than any other storytelling. There are some times when you get micro-managed to death but with Marvel, they let me make two movies that were very much mine. 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 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.”

To be clear, Whedon is not saying he wants to jump in and do ‘Episode IX,’ but instead it sounds like he thinks it would be fun to do one of the stand-alone spin-off films, and I agree, especially if it were a characters that he got to write some backstory for, potentially a female since that is his forte. Definitely a lot less pressure than trying to work on one of the Skywalker saga films, and a lot more creative freedom, but still, it would be working with a major studio again, and it is still ‘Star Wars.’ But who knows, maybe after ‘Ultron‘ Whedon just needed some time to recharge his batteries, and now he’s ready to get back in the game. According to what he’s been telling /Film, it seems for Whedon, after everything that went down with ‘Age of Ultron,’ needed time to get back to his creative roots, and work on something that he owned, get back to his own playpen as it were:

“I’m in the middle of a screenplay that I am extremely passionate about. It’s definitely a departure from the things that I’m known for. It’s as dark as anything I’ve ever written…[T]he 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.”

What do you think? Is Joss Whedon a good fit for a ‘Star Wars’ standalone film? Could you trust him again after ‘Age of Ultron?’ Feel free to share your opinion on the matter in the comments below!