IGN: I’d once heard Clark Gregg describe Joss Whedon as a “contemporary pop mythologist.”

Nathan Fillion: Oh that’s good, I like that.

IGN: Isn’t that great? He really is that, and what’s interesting is that, in many ways, that’s what Shakespeare was in his day. There really are several similarities between the two men and the kind of work they do; in the sense of the work being very funny, often bawdy, and yet with these larger-than-life, archetypal characters and stories at the center.

Fillion: Yeah, I mean I would hate to be quoted as saying, ‘Joss Whedon is the William Shakespeare of our day!’ It sounds a little ridiculous, but the similarities are there. They are both incredibly talented, they are both poets. You don’t paraphrase Shakespeare and you don’t paraphrase Joss Whedon. Joss Whedon has a rhythm and a singular vision. I can’t even understand what it is that he does, but I can certainly see how he picks people that can understand his rhythms, that can understand his voice, that can hear it and make it live and breathe and sing. I know that when I watch a Joss Whedon movie that there are lines that I hear on screen that I hear Joss’ voice, that’s him saying it. [Read the full interview]