Joss Whedon: What’s All the Fuss About?
They even extended an invitation to the man to make a guest appearance on the show. Not bad, considering he’s not even an actor. So, what has this self-confessed geek done for pop culture in order to be branded a wunderkind? More than you probably realize.
Joss Whedon isn’t much to look at- a doughy, white man with thinning hair. He looks like your neighbor, your kid’s English teacher, anything but a cult icon. Yet he currently commands legions of fans and it appears he’s only getting started. He is possibly the hardest working man in show business. He is most recognizable as the creator of the hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spin-off, “Angel.”
Although both of these shows now reside in syndication, they continue to thrive thanks to fan-driven marketing: comic books, novels, action figures, calendarsâÂ?¦you name it, there’s a Buffy/Angel version of it. But there is a lot more on Whedon’s resume than that.
Before Buffy ever slayed her first vampire, Joss Whedon was born into a television dynasty. His father and grandfather were both writers, working on the likes of “Benson” and “Leave it to Beaver”, respectively. It’s no wonder Whedon would follow in their foot steps and after graduating with a film degree in 1987, become a sitcom writer on the series “Roseanne”.
It would only be a few years before his original screenplay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, would be made into a film. It was a less than stellar movie that did poorly at the box office. It should have died there, but Whedon did a most unheard of thing. Unhappy with the results of Buffy’s first incarnation, he somehow convinced a television network to let him do a TV remake of an unsuccessful movie! It was a million to one chance, but he made the series a hit.
Many people aren’t privy to the fact that Whedon has several other famous screenplays under his belt. He was a co-writer of the 1995 Pixar classic, Toy Story, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He was also responsible for authoring the dismal Alien: Resurrection, starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. (His television characters have even referenced the sequel’s lackluster quality.)
The animated sci-fi film Titan A.E. was also a Joss Whedon screenplay. Then, of course, there is his most personally satisfying to date, Serenity. This film proved Whedon could again do the impossible in Hollywood. Only this time, he took an unsuccessful series (cult fave “Firefly”) and convinced executives to green light a major motion picture based on it.
As if all of these credits aren’t enough to make him a pop culture god, Whedon has also made himself known in the world of comic books. A fan himself, he has even stated that the character of Buffy was loosely based on X-Men femme fatale, Kitty Pryde.
Many comic series have sprung from Whedon’s TV shows (referred to as “Jossverse” by fans) and in 2004 he was hired by Marvel to pen a limited series of “The Astonishing X-Men”. The twelve-issue run was one of Marvel’s best-selling in years. He’s every fanboy’s hero now.
After three highly inventive series, directing a motion picture, an Academy Award nomination, and a successful comic series, Whedon still shows no sign of stopping. He will continue his working relation with Marvel Comics, but has also turned his eyes to the DC universe. In 2007, the world will witness the big screen debut of Wonder Woman, as only Joss Whedon could tell it. Who knows, at the pace he’s moving, he might even pop up the following year on the presidential ballot.
