After much waiting, Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods will be making its way to theatre’s on April 13th. Quite frankly, I’m not a big Joss Whedon fan, nor had I ever heard of this movie prior to watching the above trailer, but I say this without a shred of compensation (hint hint) that it looks pretty great. What starts as a straight-forward slasher movie hook quickly changes into a bizarre barage of Sci-Fi and horror. Speaking optimistically, the movie looks to be a careful post-modern dissection of a slasher flick, complete with unseen powers stage-managing horror movie tropes from behind the scenes. Sort of like that dog from Silent Hill 2. You know the one.

Joss Whedon and I don’t necessarily mix well. That isn’t to say I dislike the man or the various creations he has been part of over the years. It’s merely an observation that while I overall enjoy his work, there have been times where, for me, he’s missed more than he’s hit. Like any other human being on this planet, he makes mistakes. Also like any other human being on this planet, everyone has their own opinion about art.

That said, I’m a firm proponent of Firefly and all that the show entails. Nathan Fillion still has me watching Castle, though I generally loathe the way the show is paced. As someone who grew up with Toy Story, Whedon’s works have rarely been out of my life entirely, but I could never warm up to either Buffy or Angel. They never captured my rapt attention like they did for so many others, and there truly are so many others out there who loved it. There’s a certain section of people out there that praise everything Whedon and condemn all of those who dare question the simple fact that he is the best and has always been the best. To them, everything he touches is silver and gold. Maybe even platinum. There are also entire communities focused on following Whedon’s ripples in the world.

For those of us who don’t connect our identity with Buffy or the like, however, there’s a much more even-keeled approach.

Firefly, as many Joss Whedon fans will tell you, was fantastic. Its quick cancellation after only eleven episodes wasn’t due to the quality of the show, but more due to the way that Fox handled the show, showing episodes out of order, never having aired three of the series’ fourteen episodes, and even going so far as to not air the first episode (which was double the length of a regular episode) of the show, which contained most of the characters’ backstory and set up the show for the future. Firefly is missed to this day, and many of us (or at least one of us who may or may not be writing this) can’t even get into other space dramas because they just make us miss Firefly.

While we don’t have new episodes of the show to keep us satiated, the folks at CarSort put together this infographic filled with 18 neat facts about the show that we may not have know. Did you know that Neil Patrik Harris was turned down for the role of Simon? You should probably read on past the jump and learn some Firefly trivia.

Over at The Mary Sue, Natasha Simons does a bang-up job questioning the truism that cult hero writer and director Joss Whedon is a feminist because his work features strong women.

“He’s praised for his interesting and multiform characters. Why, in these very pages, I’ve given him a share of credit myself. He’s earned the moniker of feminist seemingly through just the creation of strong female characters alone. But … “Having a girl beat up guys is not equivalent to a strong female character when they ALWAYS, CONSTANTLY depend on men.” So true! Let’s consider some of his body of work as we undertake the Topic that Made the Fanboys Cry: Joss Whedon’s feminism.”

(The Mary Sue)

Firefly fan and Facebook user Kristoffer Gressli and his brother made a gingerbread version of everyone’s favorite Firefly class starship, Serenity, which will undoubtedly be smuggling gingerbread cattle across the gingerbread ‘Verse for the holidays. Check past the jump to see more pictures of the edible Serenity.

When Warner Bros. announced they’d be rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a movie curiously missing Joss Whedon, a lot of people were pretty unhappy about it. However, it turns out the folks over at Warner Bros. weren’t initially really stupid, in that Joss was actually offered the helm to the Buffy remake, but he declined, so they were forced to look elsewhere, rather than having ignored him like people initially thought.

Last year, rumors began surfacing that Warner Bros. was planning on rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a new movie without the participation of the character’s creator Joss Whedon. The idea seemed so stupid that no one would possibly do it and, after, a few quiet months, that seemed to be the case. Today, however, they confirmed that this unholy abomination was actually happening. Lets all spend a few paragraphs thinking about the many reasons why this is the dumbest decision ever.

Joss Whedon, as you may be aware, is not only writing and directing the Avengers movie, he has also been given the script of Captain America: The First Avenger for editing.

In an interview with Earth’s Mightest, he explained what that actually means:

Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor — most recently in Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right — but that doesn’t make his usurpation of Edward Norton‘s Hulk role for the upcoming Joss Whedon-directed adaptation of The Avengers any less unfortunate. In an interview with the NY Post, Ruffalo said, “We feel like it’s our generation’s Hamlet, and we’re all going to get a crack it.” As for smoothing any patches with his friend Norton, he noted, “We’re copacetic; we’re cool.” Looks like Ruffalo is already taking Marvel’s Shakespearean pedigree seriously. David Mamet provides an excellent definition and etymology of “copacetic” here. [NYP; pic via adherents]

We can’t all be at Comic Con. I mean, think of the overcrowding! And so for all of us who graciously refrained from attending so that everyone else might be more comfortable, here’s the footage of the Marvel Studio’s panel, where the entire cast of The Avengers debuted with their director, Joss Whedon.

Let the poster photoshopping begin!