Joss Whedon Talks Twist, How Male Fans Relate to Buffy, and What He Thinks of a Buffy Reboot
After holding court in Hall H over the weekend, Joss Whedon found time to talk to EW about his “Victorian female batman” comic, the tempting possibility of a Buffy reboot, and the evolution of female characters since the ’90s.
When asked what inspired his upcoming comic Twist, Whedon explained
It’s a story I had stuck in my head for the last couple of years that I was finally like, ‘I guess I have time to get this out now’, out of my head and onto a page.’
[…] it’s a Victorian thriller superhero story about a young chambermaid who, bad things happen to her. Needless to say, because it’s something I’m writing, she becomes very powerful because of it.
Although Twist sees Whedon working on entirely new material, EW also asked if the recent nostalgia-driven resurrection of ’90s series like The X-Files might inspire him to reboot Buffy:
I mean, I look at my shows, and part of me is like, wouldn’t it be great if… We always worked in the universe where people could age, so it’s never a worry that, ‘wait a minute. She’s still in high school?!’ And then there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘you are going to do something else at some point, right? You do have a new idea, ever?’ And there’s stuff I’m working on besides Twist as well that I actually can’t talk about, but that is actually very different.
[…] My biggest fear about bringing stuff back is the monkey’s paw. Like, what if it’s not as good? Or what if it’s just as good but it’s not new? So it doesn’t give you that feeling you need. That would be the billion dollar pressure of something like that. But I have a knack for assembling sane and wonderful casts, so I think about it. But only I can do it.
Speaking to the recent (but still insufficient) increase in female-led projects, Whedon talked about how female characters have evolved since Buffy‘s heyday:
I see some things in the landscape that were not there. But I also see things that had been there before: Xena, and James Cameron movies and all the things I was building off of. I feel like we were part of a wave — we may have actually been the crest of that wave, but I don’t feel like, ‘You’re welcome, world! This is all me!’ I feel like people were ready for it. And they just needed to know it was okay for them to be ready for it.
[…] That’s one of the reasons I love Buffy. I think she’s a character that men can identify with in a way that they’re not allowed to with a male character. I’m a little proud, But I’m mostly very grateful that I got to do that.
What do you think, friends? Would you want to see Buffy return to the small screen? Do you think Buffy was more relatable for male fans than a male character might have been”
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