Seth Rogen Views Marvel Movies as "Geared Towards Kids"

"I'll watch one of these things, as an adult with no kids, and be like, 'Oh, this is just not for me'"

Photo: Gage Skidmore

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Feb 3, 2023

There are few things in this world more reliable than the constancy of the great cinema debate. If only Martin Scorsese had known what he was starting when he spoke those hallowed words about the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2019.

The latest to weigh in on whether the blockbusters count as real movies or not is Seth Rogen, who also happens to be a producer on Prime Video superhero series The Boys. Ironically, he thinks all of the outrage-baiting discourse hubbub is over a bunch of kids movies.

In a new interview with Total Film Magazine, Rogen made the fairly obvious point that The Boys wouldn't exist without Marvel. While not part of the MCU, the show — which he produces alongside friend and fellow comic book nerd Evan Goldberg — certainly fits nicely into today's on-screen scene, inundated by big-budget crime-fighting and explosions. 

"I think just as naturally to us as The Boys fell into the comic-book-store landscape as a comic, we thought it would fall well into the media landscape as a TV show," Rogen said. "But truthfully, without Marvel, The Boys wouldn't exist or be interesting. I'm aware of that. I think if it was only Marvel, it would be bad. But I think it isn't — clearly."

Of the Marvel franchise films, he added, "I think that Kevin Feige is a brilliant guy, and I think a lot of the filmmakers he's hired to make these movies are great filmmakers. But as someone who doesn't have children… It is [all] kind of geared towards kids, you know? There are times where I will forget. I'll watch one of these things, as an adult with no kids, and be like, 'Oh, this is just not for me.'"

While this is bound to provoke gasps and expletives from the many mature Marvel fans, Rogen also touched on the real issue — which is not one of proper age demographics, but of the MCU's perceived monopoly on today's film industry.

Bringing up an oft-cited argument to explain the trend, he said, "An example I'm always quoting is, there's a point in history where a bunch of filmmakers would have been sitting around, being like, 'Do you think we'll ever make a movie that's not a western again? Everything's a western! Westerns dominate the fucking movies. If it doesn't have a hat and a gun and a carriage, people aren't going to go see it anymore.'"

If Rogen's right, we can count on a return to movies made for adults at some point. Although he was rather gentle about it, he joins the ranks of Marvel's many detractors, including Quentin TarantinoDenis VilleneuveFrancis Ford CoppolaBong Joon-ho (kind of), Benedict Cumberbatch and Leonardo DiCaprio (as well as protégé Timothee Chalamet).  

Meanwhile, the likes of Simu LiuBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever star Danai GuriraNicolas CageElizabeth OlsenRobert Downey Jr. and James Gunn have spoken out in defence of the franchise's iron grip on film.

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