Joss Whedon Is Pissed Off Over Why There’s a Lack of Female Superhero Movies
With the superhero movie genre experiencing its own renaissance, there've been attempts to give more superheroines time to shine. The CW's long-troubled Wonder Woman series, 'Amazon,' might still possibly find its footing, while fans have been shouting praise for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow. Why is it taking so long for a solid female-driven superhero flick to happen? 'Avengers' and 'Avengers 2' director Joss Whedon has the answer, and it pisses him off.
Our own Britt Hayes put together a compelling argument for why a female superhero movie needs to happen, and it looks like Whedon would agree with her. The topic came up during a recent interview with The Daily Beast, in which the director broke the problem down for us:
Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, "You see? It can’t be done." It’s stupid, and I’m hoping 'The Hunger Games' will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies. It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched 'The Avengers' and was like, “My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,” and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: “If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves."
It's a tale as old as time: few companies want to take a risk on something that's potentially great but not a sure thing. Though, aside from Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss and Johannson's Black Widow, there is a growing trend of stronger and, if you will, more kick-ass female characters in films, like in the upcoming 'Kick-Ass 2,' 'The Mortal Instruments' and 'Divergent,' and don't forget about Anne Hathaway's incredible performance as Catwoman in 'The Dark Knight Rises.' If the demand is there, Hollywood -- and the toy companies -- will have to give in, right?
For a final note, we'll leave you with Whedon's hopeful remark: "And back to the female-hero thing, I’m not going to let nobody do it. It doesn’t have to be me, but it could be."