This time you’re returning to TV with Marvel, the 800-pound hulk, backing you up. How has this experience been different?
There’s a certain amount of trust with the Marvel brass. It doesn’t mean carte blanche, nor should it. Because they’re not watching me as carefully, because I don’t have to justify what I want to do to them, I have to make sure I can justify it to myself. So I’m not just going “This sounds cool and nobody says I can’t, so wheeeeee, look at me fail!”
[...]There’s a certain amount of trust with the Marvel brass. It doesn’t mean carte blanche, nor should it. Because they’re not watching me as carefully, because I don’t have to justify what I want to do to them, I have to make sure I can justify it to myself. So I’m not just going “This sounds cool and nobody says I can’t, so wheeeeee, look at me fail!”
What work are you most proud of?
There’s a couple of episodes. [Buffy's musical episode] “Once More, with Feeling,” [Buffy's] “The Body” and [the final Firefly episode] “Objects in Space” come to mind. Those felt transcendent to me.
Do you still write everything in restaurants or cafes given your rising profile?
Oh yeah. Nobody at Starbucks ever bothers me. Somebody might say “I love your work.” Nobody is going to sit down and pitch me something. Everybody there is working on their own screenplay, anyway.