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Martin Scorsese Admits He Doesn’t Know Which Superhero Movies Are Marvel
The legendary film director Martin Scorsese admits that he doesn't know who the Marvel Cinematic Universe superheroes are, nor does he care to. Scorsese recently made headlines for saying that superhero movies aren't cinema, a statement that drew the ire of many Marvel fans. In good fun, Scorsese's daughter Francesca responded by coating his Christmas presents in Marvel wrapping paper.
If you aren't Martin Scorsese and you don't know who the Marvel superheroes are, then you've probably been living under a rock. Marvel's Avengers: Endgame is the highest grossing movie of all time, and marketing for the film seemed omnipresent, from TV commercials, to billboards and everything in between. But even before Endgame released, Marvel had been dominating the box office for upwards of a decade. The first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Iron Man in 2008, a film that kickstarted a new era of superhero movies and rebooted star Robert Downey Jr.'s career. Ever since Iron Man, Marvel movies have only gotten bigger and bigger, culminating with the wildly ambitious fourth Avengers film Endgame.
In a directors roundtable with THR, Scorsese responded candidly to criticism he's faced for the comments he made on superhero films. When the host implies that it was Marvel films he was criticizing, Scorsese says, "I said superhero films, I never- I don't even know Marvel. I remember Marvel was a comic book." In further defense of the assertion that superhero movies are more like theme-park rides than cinema, he says, "I remember when Disneyland was built, I'm that ancient. One of the aspirations of the studios was to become as important in a sense to American culture as Disneyland."
In today's day and age, many would argue that Marvel movies are more important to American culture than Disneyland, a notion that seemed like a distant dream the way Scorsese described it. The rest of the directors roundtable included Todd Phillips (Joker), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), and Fernando Meirelles (The Two Popes,) who all echoed Scorsese's sentiment in one way or another. Phillips, the director of the DC villain film Joker jokingly lamented that Scorsese's comments are the only thing reporters ask him about. When asked what cinema means to her, Gerwig responded by saying, "I know it when I see it."
The whole directors roundtable is full of excellent insights into the world of filmmaking beyond the world of Marvel. As for Scorsese, he's certainly earned the right to have personal tastes when it comes to cinema. That being said, it's honestly shocking he can't differentiate MCU superheroes from other brands, considering just how pervasive they are in American culture. But alas, there's enough pie at the table for all these wonderful filmmakers, whether directing superhero movies or not.
