Joss Whedon confirms that 'Avengers' will only have one superheroine

Image Credit: Francois DuhamelSorry, Scarlet Witch fans: Avengers director Joss Whedon was recently quoted in Australia’s Sunday Herald Sun (via Moviehole) saying, somewhat definitively, that the upcoming mega-spinoff will be the bro-iest movie about a bunch of dudes duding it up since Ocean’s 11-13. “It is true that the movie is only going to have one female Avenger,” says Whedon, although he hedges that “she will not be the only female character.” That could mean that we’ll see a female supervillain…but if I were a betting man, I’d wager that it’s more likely that we’ll see an appearance by one or more of the main superheros’ love interests, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts or Natalie Portman’s Thor-loving Jane Foster. Now, as excited as I am by the prospect of a scene featuring the Super-Galpals sitting around at their favorite trendy cafe talking about the respective bedroom merits of super-strength vs. super-intelligence, it’s just a squeensy bit depressing to find out that the Buffy auteur couldn’t figure out a way for Avengers to pass the Bechdel Test.

Still, this new information does at least give us a better indication of the kind of movie Whedon is looking to make, and although I weep for Ms. Marvel, is anyone else kind of excited by the fact that Avengers is basically going to be Animal House with superpowers? Consider: Iron Man is Otter, the smooth-talking ladies man; Captain America is Boon, a basically upstanding dude who often has to make moral compromises; Thor is D-Day, a taciturn dude with bad facial hair who is much older than he seems; and Hulk is Bluto, a mindless being who destroys everything around him. Throw in Nick Fury as Dean Wormer, and you’ve got the most expensive movie the National Lampoon never made.

PopWatchers, are you sad to here that only Scarlett Johansson gets to play with the boys? Does this make the Hawkeye-Black Widow romantic subplot even more inevitable?