Joss Whedon turns in his outline for The Avengers 2 and officially plans to shoot S.H.I.E.L.D. in January

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It’s a good time to be Joss Whedon.

Despite the heartbreak that came before, despite his studio difficulties and those creative decisions of his that occasionally only turned out to be fool’s gold – on the whole, it’s been a rough enough ride with a resoundingly positive payoff.  And not just for him – for fans of those properties he’s now involved with as well.

First off, Whedon has formally turned in his outline for THE AVENGERS 2.  Though it won’t release until May 1st, 2015, there was presumably a great deal of information and characters and powers to shuffle as Whedon coordinated with the creative direction being taken by all of Marvel’s other Phase Two projects.  But an outline at this stage in the game is plenty encouraging, and demonstrates that Marvel is still fully invested in keeping everything interconnected and well-planned and interwoven as its second superhero build-up begins.

Secondly, Whedon has officially committed to shooting the pilot episode of his show “S.H.I.E.L.D.” in January,  Previously only rumored as a start date, January will see Whedon return to the small screen in the hopes that ABC picks up his series and he can step back into the role of Executive Producer.  Which, in all honesty, is of course what’s going to happen.  Marvel hasn’t come this far to miss out on some way to capitalize on its cinematic possibility, and with Joss’ TV track record (“Dollhouse” semi-excluded) it’s a given that audiences will dig what Whedon does with the series and want more.  Should the series indeed be picked up, the positition of showrunner will pass on to Whedon’s pilot co-writers Jed Whedon (his brother), Maurissa Tancharoen (“Dollhouse”, “Dr. Horrible”) and Jeffrey Bell (“Angel”).

And to wrap things up, here are a few thoughts from Whedon on what it’s been like to finally achieve the sort of success that he has and the personal connection he has to The Hulk’s line of “I’m always angry.”

“I’ve had a wonderful career, and I’m grateful for it. But like every writer in Hollywood, there have been many times where I’ve said, ‘I swear to God, if you just me do this the way I’m thinking of doing it, it’ll work out!’ and I’ve been thwarted… Once you get to this place, where people will listen to you, give you the benefit of the doubt, and will get out of your way, all of the stuff you’ve learned to live with and tamped down, you don’t need to live with it anymore… What was most astonishing to me about making that movie was how personal it was.  I literally had the I’m-always-angry revelation during production. I had this certain amount of back-burner simmer of rage that I was completely aware of, but apparently I wrote it for Bruce Banner, going (to myself): ‘I think this is what a guy like this might go through!’ Interesting! What guy, Joss? ‘I don’t know! Some guy. I can’t think of anyone in particular, or why this is coming to me…’ Really, Joss? Really?”

“For the most part, I’m psyched. But you have to be careful that self-righteous umbrage doesn’t determine how you act around people, or how you behave artistically.  You don’t want to be the guy who’s like: ‘OF COURSE I’M RIGHT! I’VE ALWAYS BEEN RIGHT ALL ALONG!’  And then suddenly, you’re making your worst stuff, because you’ve lost that checks-and-balances thing you need to manage yourself.”