Joss Whedon is surfing the promotional wave for Much Ado About Nothing – his super-low budget re-imagining of the Shakespeare comedy – and he’s (unsurprisingly) getting pounded by the press for Avengers 2 news.
So far: nothing new to report, except for a few juicy bits Whedon’s let on in regards to why he’s returning to the Marvel director’s chair:
“Avengers 2, it wasn’t a tough decision. For a long time I thought, ‘Well, it’s just not going to happen’, [but] when I actually started to consider it, it became so clear that I desperately wanted to say more about these characters.”
On saying “no” or “yes” to Avengers 2:
“It would’ve been an easy no and it was a spectacularly easy yes. There was no wrestling. Either scenario was delightful. It was a win-win, but I’m very excited about it.”
On where the first Avengers left off:
“The creation of the team is not the happy ending. It is the beginning of something that is complex and difficult, and now I get to dig a little deeper. And maybe, while I’m digging, just twist that knife. And that’s exciting for me.”
On storytelling in general:
“I think of myself as a classical storyteller, which is why the digital era excites me. Classical storytelling is about getting a story told. It started with cave people around a campfire saying, that wooly mammoth was enormous, you should have been there! For me, that’s all that matters. It’s why I love writing comic books and I love writing prose. I love all mediums.”
On the dichotomy between business and creativity:
“There’s a business aspect to it and I would be disingenuous not to say that, but the question for me is, Do I have another story to tell about these people? So we worked on the business side of it and I didn’t think it was going to happen–I was like ‘I’m never going to do this again.’ But once they worked on the business aspect of it I thought that seems fair and cool, so, the question was, Do I have another thing to say? I was in London and I went to a pub and had some fish and chips and a pint and started writing in my notebook. I’m writing if I was going to do this what would I say and 40 minutes later I filled the notebook. So I text my agent and said to make the deal. I’m so in love with that universe and the characters and they way they were played and I have so much more I want to do with them. I know I can’t match the success of the first one but I can try to make a better film and that’s what I’m excited about, that’s the new room of fear I’m entering now.”
