Do we like Joss Whedon?
Our score: 3 out of 10. No harmful campaigning turned up and there is some real charity, but several co-stars have accused him of mistreating them and the pattern is hard to wave away.
Whedon is the bloke who gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show that made his career and that a whole generation of queer and female fans took to heart. Firefly came after it, and it is still loved enough that a revival is being built without him. For years he was held up as a feminist storyteller, which is exactly why the fall has stung so much.
The first big crack was in 2017, when his ex-wife Kai Cole wrote a guest piece for The Wrap alleging infidelity and saying he used his public feminism as cover. She wrote that he used their relationship as a shield. The article reports no reply from Whedon to her claims, though it notes he had earlier cop criticism over comments about Black Widow, which he said were misread.
In February 2021, Buffy and Angel actor Charisma Carpenter publicly accused him of abusing his power on those sets, alleging he made cruel comments and threatened her job. Representatives for Whedon declined to comment at the time. Sarah Michelle Gellar said she stood with survivors, and Amber Benson wrote “Buffy was a toxic environment and it starts at the top.”
Gal Gadot then told Israeli TV in 2021 that Whedon threatened her career during the Justice League reshoots, saying she dealt with it on the spot. In a January 2022 interview Whedon denied it, saying “I don’t threaten people. Who does that?”, and suggested English was not her first language. He called Ray Fisher's allegations of abuse on that set not true or worth discussing, and said Carpenter's account of being called fat was false, while admitting he was not mannerly toward her.
On the harm test, we found nothing from him against LGBTQ+ people, trans people, migrants or the planet, and nothing in his recent work with dodgy company. The record on that side is thin, so take it as a pass on what turned up rather than a deep dive. His public criticism has been about his behaviour and his comments on women, not about campaigning against anyone's rights.
There is real good here too. In 2007 an auction of dinners with him raised more than $61,000 for Equality Now, which works against violence and discrimination against women. In 2014 he gave $50,000 to Kids Need To Read in tribute to Nathan Fillion.