A third core X-Men title was also introduced called Astonishing X-Men, written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, following Morrison's departure.

It was also nominated for Best Writing — Screenplay Written for the Screen for the work by Joel Cohen, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon making Toy Story the first animated film to be nominated for a writing award.

The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created and largely written by Joss Whedon, also explored vampire folklore in the light of postmodern and gender feminist theory.

Whedon worked predominantly on the dialogue, but also created a few significant plot points, like the killing of Harry Temple.

For the first three seasons, David Greenwalt, who co-created the series with Whedon, was also credited as executive producer ; during this time, he also took on the role of show runner.

In a 2011 interview, Whedon stated that his decision to kill off Giles could not be discussed in detail " because ripples from that event " will also be a large part of both Buffy Season Nine and Angel and Faith.

Whedon also considered bringing Tara back in a storyline where Buffy would be given one wish to be granted, but the possibility did not come to fruition.

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce ( also spelled Wyndam-Price and Wyndham-Price ) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Series creator Joss Whedon called it a " strange, sort of schizophrenic season " with a " weird incoherence ", but also stated that the episodes in the fourth season were among the series ' best.

The First Evil ( also called The First ) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Evangeline Whedon ( a mutant possessing dragon transmorphic abilities ) also made numerous appearances.

Whedon also used unusual framing for shots, often leaving much of the frame empty, with a character being placed near the bottom or off to the side.

In this scene Whedon also let the shots last longer than usual before cutting.

The book has also been cited by Joss Whedon as the original inspiration for his science fiction / Western hybrid series Firefly.

This episode, written as a stand-alone as per the network's request, also sets up a critical plot-thread for the season arc that " will begin to reveal itself toward the end of the season ," Whedon says.

Hart also co-wrote ( with Buffy creator Joss Whedon ) and sang a song, " Blue ," for the episode " Conversations with Dead People ".

Stafford also praised Kristine Sutherland — as did Whedon — for having to lie motionless with her eyes open for hours upon hours over eight days of filming.

In July 2008, Day starred as Penny in the three-part web-based musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog ( created by Joss Whedon, who also created Firefly, Dollhouse, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which Day had parts in all but Firefly ).< ref >

The character is played by actor Adam Baldwin, who also worked with Angel creator Joss Whedon in the series Firefly, playing mercenary Jayne Cobb.

She has also contributed to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer book series with the novelization of the 1992 film, the first two TV episodes, collected under the title of The Harvest, from screenplays by Joss Whedon, and " The Angel Chronicles Vol.

Ironically, it's a line that goes unused in The Avengers, also directed by Joss Whedon.

* Jonathan M. Woodward, who plays Holden Webster, has also appeared in two other Joss Whedon series: as Knox in the final two seasons of Angel, and as Tracey in the Firefly episode " The Message ".

Whedon also does this in Angel for Julie Benz in " To Shanshu in L. A .", Eliza Dushku in " Judgment ", Juliet Landau in " The Trial " and Alyson Hannigan in " There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb ".

However, in its development Whedon felt it lost some of the quirkiness he considered was the heart of the project, and it was not received as well as he liked.

It is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy during the third night ; creator Joss Whedon says on the DVD commentary for " Chosen " that he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed, though Whedon had earlier stated on the commentary he personally felt having them resume a sexual relationship would send the wrong message.

Tara had become popular among fans, and Whedon and series writer David Fury decided that her death would elicit a strong response, something that Whedon felt sure was the correct course to take.

Joss Whedon felt so strongly about the importance of the four core characters that he dedicated the finale to exploring their development.

The penultimate episode, " Primeval ", had concluded the Initiative storyline, but Whedon felt the season's overall story arc had not been as cohesive as it could have been, and therefore chose to create an episode to act as a " grace note " to the season, an episode which would comment on each of the four main characters and what they had just been through.

This was improvised by Nathan Fillion, and was left in the shot because Joss Whedon felt it was such a natural movement for Malcolm to make.

Joss Whedon rejected this sequence because he felt it was " too unsympathetic to hit a girl who had just been in a coma "

She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ( often simplified as Buffy ) was originally conceived by Joss Whedon for a 1992 feature film.

Joss Whedon found that Hannigan was especially gifted reacting with fear ( calling her the " king of pain ") and viewers responded strongly when she was placed in danger, needing to be rescued by Buffy.

Whedon admitted he was upset by Green's announcement and that if he had wanted to continue, Oz would have been a part of the story.

Whedon and the writing staff had been considering developing a story arc in which a character explores his or her sexuality as the Scoobies left high school, but no particular effort was made to assign this arc to Willow.

The scene was, upon completion, noticeably sensual to Whedon, the producers, and network executives, who encouraged Whedon to develop a romantic storyline between Willow and Tara, but at the same time placed barriers on how far it could go and what could be shown.

When viewers realized that Willow was falling in love with Tara, Whedon remembered that some threatened to boycott the show, complaining " You made Willow a fag ", to which he responded, " Bye.

Although the show's writers and producers received a minimal negative reaction from Willow choosing Tara over Oz, the response from viewers and critics alike was overwhelming towards Whedon for killing Tara, accusing him of homophobia.

The character of Buffy was created to subvert the stereotypical female horror film victim ; Whedon wanted to create a strong female cultural icon.

Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season.

In 2007, Buffy's story was continued when Joss Whedon resurrected Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a comic book.

The character of Buffy was conceived by Joss Whedon as a way of subverting the cliché of " the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror film ".

Whedon stated " Rhonda the Immortal Waitress " was the first incarnation of Buffy in his head, " the idea of a seemingly insignificant female who in fact turns out to be extraordinary.

" When asked how he came up with the name of " Buffy ," Whedon states " It was the name that I could think of that I could take the least seriously.

" Whedon claims the title was criticized for being too silly, and the television network begged him to change it.

" In developing Buffy, Whedon was greatly inspired by Kitty Pryde, a character from the pages of the superhero comic X-Men.

The character had intended to be a brief villain, with Whedon originally adamant to not have another major " romantic vampire " character like Angel-Marsters says " Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead "-but the character ended up staying for the second season, and then returning in the fourth to replace Cordelia as " the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die ".

Spike was initially conceived as a disposable villain to be killed off, but proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to merely injure him instead, in the episode " What's My Line, Part Two ", in which Spike is crushed by a collapsing pipe organ and left paralyzed.