Let’s face it, even if you’re not an avid cinemagoer or comic reader, everyone has an opinion on superhero films. It’s hard not to, when both Marvel and DC are slugging it out in TV and film. However, it isn’t just the average everyday person who has something to say about Marvel. In a recent panel at Fan Expo Dallas, actor Nicolas Cage spoke about his feelings towards the MCU.
“I do say this with love,” Cage started with a laugh. “But when I see these 50-plus and otherwise intelligent and remarkably gifted thespians putting on these ridiculous outfits and getting ready for the fight — let’s face it, it’s all cutting to the fight — it’s hard for me not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE.”
Nicolas Cage’s funny quip on the MCU revitalizes an old debate
Although Cage is clearly joking, the quote has sparked discussion online. Some fans feel Cage is being hypocritical, given his recent role as investigator Ben Reilly in Spider-Noir and his previous role as Johnny Blaze in the 2007 and 2011 Ghost Rider films. Others, however, applaud the actor for pointing out that the movies have become glorified, vacuous spectacles of action with little to no substance or emotional payoff.
Cage isn’t the first person in Hollywood to speak about the MCU. In 2019, acclaimed director Martin Scorsese told Empire he couldn’t keep up with contemporary superhero films.
“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” Scorsese said. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Cage’s jokey ribbing may not be as cold as Scorsese’s take on superheroes. The actor seemed to refer more to the age of the actors playing the MCU’s main characters, and their extensive palma res. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are two legendary British actors whose work as “thespians,” as Cage rightly described them, earned both the honor of being knighted. Robert Downey Jr. who will be prancing around in a green cape in Avengers: Doomsday as Doctor Doom, is 61. He also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work on Oppenheimer.
At the end of the day, while there is no doubt that some fans watch the MCU movies solely for their big, blockbuster entertainment, others may have a real emotional connection to these characters, and the actors who play them have a big role in that. This is why finding replacements is so hard — or impossible, judging by Avengers: Doomsday‘s big nostalgia play.