Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon Discusses His Contributions to The First Avenger: Captain America Although Joss Whedon will be writing and directing The Avengers, his first foray into the Marvel movie universe has been as a script doctor on The First Avenger: Captain America, and in this exclusive interview he discusses his contribution to that project.

"I just got to make some character connections," explains Whedon. "The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit — and some of the other characters — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit."

Serving as a script doctor is nothing new to Whedon, who performed the same bedside manner to the screenplays for Speed (the patient lived) and Waterworld (not so much). As such, it was an enjoyable exercise of a creative muscle that he hasn’t used in quite some time.

"It’s fun in this case," offers Whedon, "because, A, they’ll actually use the things I wrote, which is rare; and, B, it’s a fun puzzle to go in and say, ’Okay, this is what works, this is what needs to be connected, and here are some key moments.’ Then the third thing is that it takes place in the ’40s, so I got to write ’40s dialogue, and that’s never not fun!"