Movies - TV
Joss Whedon Faced The Same 'Nightmare' While Writing The Avengers And Serenity
By JENNA BUSCH
Writing a few main characters can be difficult, but balancing an ensemble of lead roles in a TV show or film is infinitely more challenging, as director Joss Whedon can attest. The filmmaker responsible for such projects as "Firefly" and "Cabin in the Woods" has called this sort of balancing act a "nightmare," which was particularly the case for "The Avengers" and "Serenity."
While working on “The Avengers,” Whedon shared that at first the possible interactions between the characters are “just extraordinary fun”; however, once getting “into the practical stuff, like ‘How does this guy...’, it’s a nightmare.” Whedon added, “It’s really a recurring nightmare because it was so much like ‘Serenity’ in that way. So I really sort of went ‘Oh, God, I’ve done it again!’”
The filmmaker explained the difficulties with "Serenity": "The challenge was to get everybody in there! [...] When I was given the opportunity to make a movie of this, yes, all of the sudden I had 9 characters, and that's a lot of people to put in a movie." Although balancing characters can be a complex dance, Whedon was able to masterfully pull it off in both films.