Joss Whedon

When Buffy creator Joss Whedon announced he was writing the new Wonder Woman movie, fans ached with promise. Now the glory of that collaboration will never be.

A still from the film Serenity, written and directed by Joss Whedon.

For Whedon fans, the prospect of Joss writing Wonder Woman was one filled with aching promise. She had every chance of being another Buffy, and this time with a magic lasso and bracelets - possibly the only thing missing from our Southern California heroine’s wardrobe and weapons chest. If ever a character was ripe for reinvention by the Whedonian hand, it was Diana Prince. Now the glory that she would have been will never shine upon us.

More importantly, the man needs a hit. It used to be that making cool stuff brought you the freedom to make more cool stuff. Critical acclamation for a creative force begat confidence amongst others and loosened purse strings. No longer. None of Whedon’s ventures have had quite the all-conquering - including and especially the financial - success of Buffy. (Angel, the follow-up, was canned after five seasons to make way for - spit! - a reality TV show.) Because Hollywood’s memory is now measurable only in nanoseconds, and the kind of producers who once recognised talent have been entirely supplanted by accountant who recognise only opening weekend grosses, we will soon be in the ridiculous position of needing Whedon, the man who has given us more groundbreaking, more intelligent, funnier television than any man in history, a man to whom there should be statues being erected around the world, needing a critically acclaimed and box office hit so that dimwits in suits don’t choke off the money needed to realise whatever his next vision turns out to be.

The brilliant Firefly was cancelled after half a season. Hollywood, television’s moneymen and assorted other troglodytes remember this and forget that Fox cancelled eight billion other shows at the same time, including Family Guy, whose DVDs had outsold The Simpsons for three years in a row. Just as they forget that Firefly itself has become an international bestseller on DVD since then. And that it inspired Serenity, making Whedon the first man in history to have a film emerging from a cancelled TV series.

Not to give him his head in Wonder Woman, not to throw money at him and know that he will come up with something worth watching, something that no-one else could produce is lunatic. Unless, of course, it is all part of some far reaching conspiracy to force him to turn his attention to a screen version of the Buffy season eight comic book - now that would be a salve for all those who have had Wonder Woman so cruelly torn away from them...