EW Bizarre?
JW The reality television thing. I've definitely been the guy in ''Singin' in the Rain'' who's like, ''Talking pictures -- it's just a fad!'' The face of the marketplace is changing; none of the networks are doing that well, and they're all scrambling. ABC is kind of falling apart, NBC and CBS are entrenched, my history with Fox [as a network] is...not great. The WB basically said, We have to do more reality, we don't have room for ''Angel'' -- this, when ''Angel'' had always done well, and was doing better...I'm not sure what else I needed to do! That's the question we [TV producers]are constantly asking: What do they want? The thing is, they don't know what they want. There's no one with vision. There's no commitment to developing good, quality shows. Even though Fox invested millions of dollars into ''Firefly,'' they ultimately didn't believe in it. They scheduled it in the death slot [Friday] and let it die.
EW So they invested millions in a show they didn't like, just to kill it? Why would they do that?
JW [Bewildered] Because Fox is a bad network that makes bad decisions. [While The WB would not comment, a Fox spokesperson said: ''We wish ''Firefly'' had found an audience, and we would like nothing better than to be in business with Joss again.'']
EW About ''Serenity:'' There were rumors you were asked to make some changes to your screenplay to accommodate Universal's vision for franchising. True?
JW Absolute nonsense. You're seeing a lot of movies that are built to be a springboard for a franchise. Like ''Underworld.'' Well, I'm saying maybe you should take a long hard look at your f -- -ing movie before you worry about your franchise. Obviously, Universal does see this as a potential franchise-springboard marketing vehicle. But none of that matters unless I make a movie that not only people who loved ''Firefly'' will respect, but people who never heard of it can walk in and have a wonderful time.
EW Are you losing any cast members?
JW Every. Single. Member. Of. The. TV. Show. Is. Back. I wouldn't have done it without everybody.
EW Do you want to concentrate more on making features?
JW I've spent my whole life waiting to make films. At the same time, I have a love for TV that is different. TV does a thing that film can never do. It takes you to a place that no novel written after the late 19th century can. You can just go through people's lives; it's like a marriage. I love both. I want to do both.
EW And you want to do comics. You're making ''The X-Men'' an old-fashioned superhero comic again -- even putting them back in their colorful costumes.
JW The thinking behind that was Marvel saying, ''Can you put them in their costumes?'' and me saying, ''Okay.''
EW For a corporate mandate, you sell it well. Your first issue made me wonder if you feel recent comics have gone too far in deconstructing superheroes.
