Joss Whedon Vents His Frustration about Lack of Female Superheroes

Movie Joss Whedon by Joey Paur

It's no secret that Joss Whedon loves female heroines. He loves a good female ass kicker and has created some iconic characters such as Buffy, Zoë, and Echo to prove it. Who doesn't like to see a strong female character in the movies?! I do. I know a lot of you do, but for some reason the studios don't think that we do. That's why we don't see more female superhero films, and this pisses Whedon off. During a recent interview with The Daily Beast, the filmmaker vents his frustration saying,

I was raised by a hardcore feminist. I was also much smaller than my brothers and bullied a lot, so I identify with the feeling of helplessness.

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.”

What's crazy is, that on top of the characters Whedon has created, we have other female heroines such as Ripley in Aliens and Sarah Connor from Terminator. There's more proof that female heroes work and that people want it. It just needs to be done right. Films like Elektra and Catwoman were just terribly made movies! Had they actually been good, maybe people would have watched them. 

Some of Hollywood still has yet to realize that story is king. If you make a great story with interesting characters, people will see your movie. 

I guess if anyone can change Hollywood's mind on female heroes, it's going to be Joss Whedon. He's already including more female superheroes in The Avengers 2, now Marvel just needs to give one of them her own film. 

Which female superhero would you like to see brought to life on the big screen? 

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