Joss Whedon's Entrance Into The MCU Cost An Old Friend Millions
"The Avengers" writer/director Joss Whedon may be long banished from the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, but his influence remains seeped into the whole enterprise. The screwball, genre-aware dialogue Whedon writes is now the MCU's house style — if not a hindrance. Other writers have been aping it to diminishing returns ever since.
The behind-the-scenes book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Gavin Edwards, Dave Gonzales, and Joanna Robinson details how Marvel Studios first hired Whedon. His gain was another writer's loss; Zak Penn had already written a script for "The Avengers," but Whedon threw his version out and started from scratch. "There was a script. There just wasn't a script I was going to film a word of," Whedon said. This move is an early harbinger of how Whedon would make his style into Marvel's own.
As "MCU" notes, this wasn't the first time this had happened to Penn. Edward Norton, star and wannabe auteur of "The Incredible Hulk," rewrote Penn's script for that movie. However, on "Hulk," Norton went uncredited for his script work and let Penn keep his screenplay credit. On "The Avengers," Whedon would be taking that credit from Penn (ultimately, Whedon and Penn shared a "Story by" credit for "The Avengers", but Whedon got sole screenplay credit).
Penn-ing the Avengers script
Whedon and Penn had known each other long before "The Avengers" was in production. They'd even gone to the same school, Wesleyan University (Whedon graduated in the class of 1987, and Penn in the class of 1990). That's one reason why Penn was surprised Whedon completely shut him out of the writing process.
"[Whedon] didn't even want to meet with me — which, by the way, I always call the writer I'm replacing. I feel like that's courtesy," Penn recounted. "MCU" continues, saying Penn then guessed Whedon was feeling awkward about replacing him. So, he reached out to Whedon on his own. "No, it's not awkward for me. I'm rewriting you," Whedon answered (at least per Penn's recollection), showing "zero interest" in collaborating with Penn. As Penn pleaded, Whedon gave him the cold shoulder:
"My kids have grown up while I've been working on it. They've all told their friends about it. What's going to happen when their friends are like, 'Your dad didn't work on Avengers'?" An unmoved Whedon fired back, "What's going to happen when my kids think that you wrote half the story?"
This wasn't just a matter of pride for Penn; his bonus for the movie was contingent on screenplay credit, so not getting it would shape his bottom line. "So literally millions and millions of dollars, which is not the issue here, but that just came out of my pocket and went into Joss's pocket," he remembers.
Does Penn hold a grudge? Well, he called Whedon "a dick" and "a bad person" in "MCU." He's not alone, either.
Others speak up
Whedon's dismissive treatment of Penn is far from an isolated incident. His reputation has taken a nosedive in recent years as more and more former colleagues have come forward to discuss his bad behavior. Even from Whedon's attempts at exculpation, his life story sounds like a classic case of the bullied becoming the bully once they have the power.
Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in "Justice League," has been vocal about his negative experiences with Whedon (who helmed reshoots of the movie). In 2020, he called Whedon's onset conduct "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable." In 2021, Fisher recounted to The Hollywood Reporter a specific incident where he was compelled to say Cyborg's "Teen Titans" catchphrase ("Booyah!"). Whedon's behavior during the take (quoting Shakespeare at Fisher then shouting "Nice work Ray!" as a victory gloat) is in line with his smug attitude towards Penn.
Following Fisher's accusations, Charisma Carpenter (who played Cordelia Chase on "Buffy" and then "Angel") spoke up via Twitter in 2021. She finally confirmed a rumor going back decades, that her abrupt dismissal in "Angel" season 4 was because she became pregnant and Whedon wouldn't accommodate the show around that.
As for how Whedon treats other writers? Jose Molina (who wrote for Whedon's sci-fi series "Firefly") said in a (since-deleted) tweet:
"'Casually cruel' is a perfect way of describing Joss. He thought being mean was funny. Making female writers cry during a notes session was especially hysterical. He actually liked to boast about the time he made one writer cry twice in one meeting."
Carpenter compared Whedon to the vampires he wrote in her statement; Zak Penn is just one of the many people whose lifeblood he drained.