In May, Joss Whedon made headlines when he left Twitter because he found it too distracting and said it was impacting his work. Now, however, four months after going silent on social media, the Avengers: Age of Ultron director has rejoined with one purpose: to get people to vote in the upcoming general election.
Whedon shared the first video from his new production house, Save the Day, which features the cast of the Avengers and other celebrities that the writer-director has worked with, talking about the election. Although it starts off with a serious tone, akin to other celebrity-studded, "please go out and vote" videos that are created every election series, it quickly dissolves into raunchy, witty humor that Whedon has become known for.
According to the company’s mission statement on the site, the idea behind the videos that are set to be released is to remind people that voting is a "necessary and heroic act" and democracy can only stand if people actually go to the polls and submit their ballot.
"We are committed to fighting the apathy, cynicism and honest confusion that keeps citizen from using their vote," the statement reads. "And to remind an increasingly out-of-touch and compromised set of representatives that they are answerable to the people they were hired to serve."
Unsurprisingly, the video goes in pretty hard on Republican representative Donald Trump. At one point in the video, actor Don Cheadle calls the politician a "racist, abusive coward who could permanently damage the fabric of our society." Cheadle’s thoughts are echoed by others in the video, including Scarlett Johansson, Taran Killam and Cobie Smulders.
There may be a few more videos for the election, which takes place on Nov. 8, but Whedon hasn’t said at this time if this will be an ongoing project once the election is over or if it will run for just a few weeks.
