The first reaction anyone should have to this story is “obviously.” Obviously Joss Whedon would be up to direct a female superhero story. He's done it before. But if he had to choose between the Marvel Jessica Jones type and the DC Supergirl type, which would he pick?
The Wrap spoke to Whedon as he was being honored at a HeForShe Media Summit in Los Angeles recently. He's taken a step back from large-scale productions like Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron and is working on something for himself.
However, Whedon was limited in what he was willing to say about its premise. “It is a story about a girl who goes through some unbelievable sh-t,” he told The Wrap. “It is an original screenplay that is very different from everything I”ve ever done except for that it”s exactly the same.” That sounds like the Whedon we know and love.
Asked whether he”d be into directing a female-driven Avengers franchise, Whedon told TheWrap, “Yeah, of course. Although I tend more towards the Jessica Jones-ey kind of stories than the delightful Supergirl stories that my daughter wants.”
We can't be sure what The Wrap meant by “female-driven Avengers franchise” – did they mean an actual Marvel property or just Marvel-like? But in case you were wondering (or anyone else online was leading you to believe it), he's not going to direct Captain Marvel.
But, Whedon told us, he”s glad to see a woman leading a superhero movie in the MCU. (The role is yet to be cast.) Whedon gave full credit to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for even placing a Captain Marvel movie into development. “Kevin Feige fought a mighty fight to get her on the schedule. So it”s a start. You could say that should be a middle, but it”s a start,” said Whedon, directing his comments at Hollywood as a whole and not Marvel specifically.
There's been a lot of talk recently (from myself included) about the gender imbalance (or sausage fest, as Stephen Colbert called it) in Marvel's superhero films. Many have pointed the blame squarely at Marvel's CEO Ike Perlmutter and Whedon's prompting of the positive steps Feige has made likely alludes to that as well.