Joss Whedon's Updates For 5 Big Projects

    There are several projects Whedon’s been attached to since joining the Marvel Studios fold, directing 2012’s The Avengers and the upcoming sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. The filmmaker gives BuzzFeed News his updates for all of them.

    Adam B. Vary
    by Adam B. Vary

    BuzzFeed News Reporter

    Big Giant Me EP

    Courtesy Shawnee Kilgore

    BuzzFeed News broke the story last August that Whedon was collaborating with singer-songwriter Shawnee Kilgore on a six-song EP. The two met via Kickstarter when Whedon helped fund Kilgore's own second full-length album.

    "Shawnee and I have written a couple more songs. But she got kicked to the curb along with everything else in my life when I realized, Oh, I literally can't think about anything else [but Age of Ultron]. So she's been very sweet, and she's putting out the album that I helped Kickstart. That's something that I will pick up again in May. We're pretty close."

    Dr. Horrible 2

    Mutant Enemy Productions

    It's been seven years since Whedon's DIY musical broke the internet, and pretty much everyone involved with it has been hard at work elsewhere: Nathan Fillion on ABC's Castle, Felicia Day with her YouTube channel Geek & Sundry, Simon Helberg on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, collaborators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and star Neil Patrick Harris with his upcoming NBC variety special (as well as possibly going for his awards ceremony host EGOT). Still, fans have dearly hoped for a sequel — and they aren't alone.

    "We've done a lot of work on it, including a bunch of songs. But I was starting to feel like, I don't know if that's [possible]. Everybody's so busy, and we've all changed. I saw Neil do Hedwig [on Broadway], and went backstage, and the first thing he said was, 'When are we doing a sequel?!' I'm like, OK! Maybe that's still on! So it'll be interesting to see when we come up for air on it. Not sure. But god knows, we have the people. We have the technology. We can rebuild it."

    Wastelanders

    Michael Buckner / Getty Images

    After Dr. Horrible's success, Whedon spoke openly of creating another web series with writer Warren Ellis (pictured) that Ellis has called "a funny horrible story about the end of the world," but that's about as far as things have progressed.

    "I still talk to Warren about it. I still think it's interesting. It was built around a sort of internet paradigm that probably is a little old-fashioned. It was built in my mind when still nobody was doing anything. So I sort of need to look at the landscape."

    Con Man

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    Firefly star Alan Tudyk launched a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign for this web series, based on Tudyk's experience as an actor on a beloved cult favorite sci-fi TV show that was canceled well before its time. (Sound familiar?) Fellow Browncoat Nathan Fillion will also star and produce. Whedon has endorsed the project, but he's got to be on it, right?

    "Well, I hope I'm involved! I think I'd rather play the guy who canceled it. I think that would be hilarious. Just, like, bitter. Constantly justifying himself. 'This is a business! I had to do it!'"

    Goners

    Jung Yeon-je / Getty Images

    Whedon’s fantasy horror thriller project with a female lead protagonist has remained dormant for years.

    "Every now and then, it crops up in my head. A lot of my stories that I've told, I'm like, I'm past that stage of storytelling, or I got it out of my system, and it's hard to work up the energy to go back. Every now and then with Goners, I'm like, there's something about this that hasn't been expressed yet. But I can't think about anything that involves a number of people. The central character, it's really her story. But then she really falls in with this, dare I say, team. And I'm just like, Can I please do something that just isn't that. I'm so tired! So it's another question mark. Most of these are question marks, sorry! But with exclamation points, and smiley emojis!"

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    A previous version of this post included a photo of the Australian musician Warren Ellis, and not the British author Warren Ellis. It has been replaced with a photo of the correct Ellis.