Joss Whedon played a huge part in solidifying Marvel‘s approach to their cinematic universe, with the quip-happy style deployed by the filmmaker in The Avengers now well and truly established as one of the signatures of the studio’s work. Of course, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger weren’t without humor, but the one-liners really started coming to the fore after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had assembled for the first time.
However, Whedon soon became dissatisfied with his role in the MCU, and ultimately jumped ship following Age of Ultron after being forced into one too many compromises by the corporate higher-ups. It would be fair to say that his next move came a little out of the blue, as he boarded yet another all-star superhero ensemble to get the DCEU’s Justice League over the finish line following Zack Snyder’s departure, but once again it appeared as though the studio were largely calling the shots.
Having been vilified by DCEU fans, with his version of Justice League only ever talked about as the reason why the Snyder Cut should be finished and released, Whedon’s stock in the industry isn’t as high as it once was. It seemed as though his unhappiness on the second Avengers movie had drawn a line under his time at Marvel, but we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Ashoka Tano will be in The Mandalorian season 2 and Karen Gillan is being eyed for Pirates of the Caribbean 6, both of which were correct – that Whedon has held discussions about possibly returning to the MCU.
According to our intel, the director has spoken to Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel Studios’ key players about the Fantastic Four reboot, Nova and the all-female Avengers spinoff A-Force. And while he hasn’t officially signed on for any of them just yet, all three seem like decent fits for his style.
A-Force in particular would give him the chance to make the female-driven comic book movie he almost got over at DC with Batgirl, while the dysfunctional family dynamic of the Fantastic Four also seems right up his street. Not to mention that Whedon’s Serenity showed a knack for handling sci-fi that could come in handy for Nova. Of course, there’s a chance that he’ll end up directing none of the three and Marvel will go with someone else in the end, but at this point, it’s definitely sounding like he could find himself behind the camera for one of the aforementioned projects. The only question, is, which one will he ultimately go with?
