Joseph Hill Whedon
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Joss Whedon created the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, which ran for seven seasons and became a critical success. He also wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 1995, earning an Oscar nomination, and directed Marvel’s The Avengers 2012, which grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide. His work has won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Joss Whedon — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Joss Whedon by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Joss Whedon — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Joss Whedon was born on June 23, 1964, in New York City, the middle of five brothers. His father Tom Whedon and grandfather John Whedon both wrote for television; his mother Lee Stearns was a history teacher and novelist. He attended Riverdale Country School, where his mother taught, then spent two years at Winchester College in England before earning a film degree from Wesleyan University in 1987.
After moving to Los Angeles, Whedon landed his first TV writing job on Roseanne, then wrote for Parenthood. His first film script was Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1992, but the final film disappointed him due to rewrites. He earned screenwriting credits on Alien: Resurrection 1997 and Toy Story 1995, for which he received an Oscar nomination. He revived Buffy as a television series in 1997, serving as showrunner and executive producer, and it became a critical and popular success. He also created the spin-off Angel 1999 and the sci-fi series Firefly 2002, which was cancelled after 14 episodes but developed a cult following. In 2012, he wrote and directed Marvel’s The Avengers, a blockbuster that grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, and later directed Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015.
He married Kai Cole in 1995, and they had two children: a son Arden born in 2002 and a daughter Squire born in 2004/2005. Their son Arden’s godparents are Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof. The couple divorced in 2016 after Whedon admitted to multiple affairs during their marriage, as revealed in Cole’s 2017 essay. He later married Heather Horton. His children carry his wife’s last name rather than his. He has been an active supporter of gay rights and a self-identified feminist, though his feminist persona was called into question by Cole’s allegations.
Joss Whedon’s creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer redefined the horror and fantasy genres on television, offering a strong feminist icon in its heroine. The Buffy episode Hush, with 28 minutes of silence, earned an Emmy nomination for writing. The series has inspired a devoted fan base. His work on Firefly and the subsequent film Serenity 2005 demonstrated his ability to build cult followings. In film, his direction of The Avengers 2012 transformed the Marvel Cinematic Universe and set the stage for future ensemble superhero movies. He has received multiple Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and the Bradbury Award.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Joss Whedon — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Joss Whedon — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
But Nowadays I’m Really Cranky About Comics. Because Most of Them Are Just Really, Really Poorly Written Soft-core. and I Miss Good Old Storytelling. and You Know What Else I Miss? Super Powers. Why Is It Now That Everybody’s Like I Can Reverse the Polarity of Your Ions! Like in One Big Flash Everybody’s Doctor Strange. I Like the Guys That Can Stick to Walls and Change into Sand and Stuff. I Don’t Understand Anything Anymore. and All the Girls Are Wearing Nothing, and They All Look Like They Have Implants. Well, I Sound Like a Very Old Man, and a Cranky One, but It’s True.
Remember to Always Be Yourself. Unless You Suck.
I’d Rather Make a Show 100 People Need to See, Than a Show That 1000 People Want to See.
Writers Are Completely Out of Touch with Reality. Writers Are a Crazy Person. We Create Conflict – for a Living. We Do This All the Time, Sometimes on a Weekly Basis, We Create Horrible, Incredible Circumstances and Then Figure a Way Out of Them. That’s What We Do.
If Somebody Comes up to Me, It’s Because They’re Moved by Something I’m Moved By. I’ve Never Taken a Job I Didn’t Love . . . so When Somebody’s Coming up to Me, or They’re Writing, They’re in the Same Space I Am In. I Write for Fanboy Moments. I Write to Give Myself Strength. I Write to Be the Characters That I Am Not. I Write to Explore All the Things I’m Afraid Of. I Write to Do All the Things the Viewers Want To. so the Intensity of the Fan Response Is Enormously Gratifying. It Means I Hit a Nerve.
. . . I Believe the Best Way to Examine Anything Is to Go to a Dark Place. You Can’t Be a Storyteller and a Speechwriter at the Same Time.
There Are Two Things That Interest Me – and They’re Both Power, Ultimately. One Is Not Having It and One Is Abusing It.
As I’ve Often Said, Subtlety Is for Little Men.
I Don’t Tend to Write Straight Dramas Where Real Life Just Impinges. but Because I Don’t, When I Do It Is Very Interesting to Slap People in the Face with Just an Absolute of Life.
I’ve Had so Much Success. I Had Something to Say, I Got to Say It, People Heard It, and They Agreed. That’s Every Artist’s Dream. That’s the Brass Ring.
I Always Watch What I Say. I Am What I Say. and I Say I’m Emperor of Always, so . . . Respect, Buddy.
I Love Fantasy. I Love Horror. I Love Musicals. Whatever Doesn’t Really Happen in Life Is What I’m Interested In, as a Way of Commenting on Everything That Does Happen in Life, Because Ultimately the Only Thing I’m Really Interested in Is People.
Little-known facts about Joss Whedon — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
He was asked to revise the script for X-Men 2000 and reportedly decided the whole script needed to be totally rewritten. When he handed the studio this draft, they apparently threw it out; they only really wanted him to add a couple jokes here and there.
Whedon’s episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled Hush was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. That episode featured 28 minutes without dialogue, as a group of fairy-tale demons called the Gentlemen arrived in Sunnydale to steal voices, and then hearts.
He has claimed that his script for the Firefly episode Our Mrs. Reynolds is his personal favorite thing he has ever written.
His children have his wife’s last name, not his.
After the cancellation of Firefly, Whedon cast nearly all of the main cast members as villains in his other projects. Nathan Fillion appeared in the seventh season of Buffy as Caleb. Gina Torres appeared in the fourth season of Angel as Jasmine. Adam Baldwin also appeared in Angel, in the fifth season as Marcus Hamilton. Summer Glau and Alan Tudyk appeared in Dollhouse as Bennett Halverson and Alpha, respectively. Sean Maher played Don John in Whedon’s movie of Much Ado About Nothing.
He directed the post-credits scene of Thor 2011 to set up The Avengers 2012 and the mid-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014 to set up Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015.
His ex-wife Kai Cole published an essay about their 16-year-marriage. In it, she described his secret affairs and the hypocrisy of his public feminist persona.
He is responsible for making Thanos the overall villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
His influences include Ray Bradbury, James Cameron, Rod Serling, William Shakespeare, Stephen Sondheim, and Steven Spielberg.
His favorite movie is The Matrix 1999.
He wrote the plot to the comic book Serenity, which bridged the gap between the Firefly TV series and the film. Fellow Firefly writer Brett Matthews scripted it.
Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof are the godparents of his son Arden.
He is a very big fan of Battlestar Galactica and cast Tahmoh Pennikett as one of the leads in Dollhouse based on his work in it. He also cast Jamie Bamber, Michael Hogan and Mark Sheppard in guest parts.
He rewrote the script for Speed 1994 uncredited.
He is a huge X-Men fan and based his most famous character, Buffy Summers, partly on Kitty Pryde.
His work often contains twinning, doubles, or doppelgängers. He has twice cast the non-acting identical twin brother of one of his series regulars as a supernatural double. In the season 5 Buffy episode The Replacement, Kelly Donovan twin of Nicholas Brendon plays a part of Xander’s personality. In the season 2 Dollhouse episode The Attic, Demir Gjokaj twin of Enver Gjokaj plays an alternate version of Victor.
He considers The Road Warrior 1981 to be a perfect movie.
He reportedly made more money off Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 2008 than the third-highest-grossing film The Avengers 2012.
He was signed to write the Wonder Woman film, but no actress officially stepped into the role until December 4, 2013, for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Writing is clearly in his blood, since he could arguably be the world’s first third-generation television writer. His grandfather was a successful sitcom writer in the 1950s and ’60s on The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, and his father wrote for The Dick Cavett Show, Alice, and Benson.
He is a huge fan of the Terminator series.
He has said that he created Buffy to be an alternative feminist icon.
He is an active supporter of gay rights.
He appeared on-screen in the Jossverse for the first time in the Angel episode Through the Looking Glass as Numfar of the Deathwok Clan, a relative of the Host who is routinely ordered by Lorne’s mother to dance.
After receiving a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University, Whedon moved to Los Angeles and landed his first writing job on the staff of Roseanne, working as a story editor and writing several episodes. He later pulled double duty on the NBC series Parenthood, co-producing and writing a number of episodes.
He is related to Jed Whedon, video game music composer.
Whedon, who has made his support of feminist causes well known, was a subscriber to Sassy, an American feminist magazine for teenage girls published between 1988 and 1994. This suggests he was still receiving it in his late 20s or early 30s.
He was one of the many screenwriters to submit a draft for the film Freddy vs. Jason 2003.
He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987.
He lived in the UK for three years, from 1980 to 1982, attending Winchester College in Hampshire, where he took his A levels. The character of Rupert Giles is mistakenly thought to be based on a history teacher there, Dr. Peter Cramer; Dr. Cramer’s arrival at the College post-dates Whedon’s departure. The character was named in tribute to his House Matron, Barbara Giles.
The August 21, 1995, draft of the screenplay for Twister 1996 credits Joss Whedon and Jeff Nathanson as writers, but neither is credited in the final film.
It took him two years to finish writing the Buffy comic book spin-off mini-series Fray with artist Karl Moline due to his schedule with his three shows Buffy, Angel, Firefly and the artist’s new job at CrossGen Comics.
In X-Men: The Last Stand 2006, the idea of a cure developed by Dr. Kavita Rao, Beast’s interest in it, and the prominent roles played by Kitty Pryde and Colossus were inspired by Whedon’s story Gifted in Astonishing X-Men.
In the 2002-2003 television season, Whedon had three television series running on different networks: Buffy on UPN, Angel on the WB, and Firefly on Fox. Angel was the only one to still be on the air in 2003-2004, as Buffy ended its seven-season run and Firefly was cancelled after 14 episodes.
He completed his first draft script for Wonder Woman in 2007, but that film ended up being written by Allan Heinberg and was not released until 2017.
In 2007, he started writing the comic-book Runaways after Brian K. Vaughan left it.
Whedon and his then-wife Kai Cole can be heard doing a demo track for the episode Once More With Feeling on the episode soundtrack, recorded in the front hall of their home.
He is one of several successful current filmmakers who are graduates of Wesleyan University, including Michael Bay, Ruben Fleischer, and Benh Zeitlin.
He is brother of Zack Whedon assistant to David Milch and Jed Whedon.
His wife Kai Cole gave birth to their son Arden on December 18, 2002.
He has stated that the name choice Twilight for the masked super villain of the Buffy Season Eight comics was a coincidence, not a reference to the Twilight 2008 franchise.
He wrote an introduction for Jim Krugeer and Alex Ross’s Marvel Comics award-winning graphic novel Earth X.
He is son of Tom Whedon.
His daughter Squire was born late 2004 or early 2005.
He is grandson of John Whedon.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Joss Whedon.
Celebrities similar to Joss Whedon — same craft, ranked by reach.
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