Joss Whedon Wants THE AVENGERS SEQUEL To Be ‘Smaller’, ‘More Intimate’, Right On
Marvel has been building up to The Avengers for years, often times at the detriment of the individual movie franchises that are tying into it. How the fuck do you top this mammoth event? According to Joss Whedon, you don’t even try. Amen.
Play List:
Asked by SFX what he would do for a sequel, Whedon said he would change things, “By not trying to. By being smaller. More personal, more painful… By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time. By having a theme that is completely fresh and organic to itself.”
He says he was drawn to “The Avengers” — which features Hulk smashing stuff out of the sky — by the character details and the dialogue. “I want to know what makes them tick, what makes them flawed, what makes them fight – and ultimately, what makes them awesome,” Whedon said. “I go to these movies for those moments when the heroes define themselves, either through action or deliciously overwritten speeches.”
While it’s admirable he wants to do “The Puffy Chair” version of a superhero tentpole, take any brief look at the Marvel series of the films and you know that with each successive effort they try to raise the bar. By it’s very nature, “The Avengers” will always be overstuffed, crammed with heroes who have to face an opponent or cause worthy of getting them all together. We’d love to see a $25 million Sundance version, but it’s never gonna happen.
I’m not nearly as cynical as the Jagernauth over at Play List. Certainly there are parameters within the Event Flick Manifesto that must be followed, but I don’t see why Whedon can’t synthesize that with some of his typical character-driven story. The entire first movie is dedicated to ASSEMBLING and shit, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that there can be some quieter moments in the second flick now that they don’t have to tie everything into a bundle.
Am I optimistic? ‘Course, where you been.