Zack Snyder, the director of comic book adaptations Watchmen and 300 as well as the director of Man of Steel and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, shared his belief that comic book adaptations are now a dead end.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 13: (L-R) Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder attend the Netflix Premiere of Zack Snyder’s REBEL MOON – Part One: A Child of Fire at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 13, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Netflix)
Speaking with The Atlantic while promoting his latest Netflix film, Rebel Moon, Snyder shared that he has comic book and superhero fatigue.
He informed the outlet, “I have the same fatigue.” He didn’t stop there as he described comic book adaptations as a “cul-de-sac now.”
Rebel Moon. (L-R) Charlie Hunnam as Kai, Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, Sofia Boutella as Kora, Staz Nair as Tarak and Djimon Hounsou as Titus in Rebel Moon. Cr. Netflix ©2023
Furthermore, he appeared to put the blame on moviegoers as he noted, “No one thinks they’re going to a one-off superhero movie.”
The idea here is that audiences don’t expect self-contained stories anymore, but expect spin-offs and sequels and serialized storytelling typically seen in television and more modern comic books.
Rebel Moon. Doona Bae as Nemesis in Rebel Moon. Cr. Netflix ©2023
Snyder also indicated he has no interest in making superhero films anymore. He informed the outlet, “I’m not knocking on James Gunn’s door, going, like, ‘Bro, shoot me one of those sweet movies.”
Instead, Snyder claims he’s chasing original IP, “The holy grail is some original IP that you create, that has resonance and is cool.”
Rebel Moon. (L-R) Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, Ed Skrein as Atticus Noble and Greg Kriek as Marcus in Rebel Moon. Cr. Clay Enos/Netflix ©2023
Ironically, Snyder’s “original IP” in Rebel Moon is a Star Wars knock off. Speaking with Empire in July, Snyder shared how the film was originally a Star Wars pitch, “It was Seven Samurai in space. And a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it.”
Snyder then went on to explain why it didn’t work out at Lucasfilm, “The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened. There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side.’ And originally I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.”
He elaborated, “I knew it was a big ask, to be honest. But the deeper I got into it, I realised it was probably never going to be what I wanted.”
REBEL MOON: Director/writer/producer Zack Snyder on the set of Rebel Moon. Cr. Clay Enos/Netflix © 2023
As for superhero fatigue, the phrase implies audiences and moviegoers are simply fatigued fatigued by superhero stories in general. The notion is ridiculous given 3 of the top 10 films with the most tickets sold are films featuring superheroes. There is clearly still an audience for comic book and superhero movies.
The problem a lot of superhero films are having now is their budgets are way too high resulting in massive losses for the studios making the films. Not only are their budgets too high, but they have a significant storytelling problem as many of the studios have chosen to eschew classic moral tales as seen in Phase 1 MCU films such as Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man.
Instead, they’ve pushed films like Eternals to the top simply due to its worth in pushing a representation ideology. Many of the films are also full with feminist ideology. It can take a number of forms including replacing male characters with female characters as was the case with Taskmaster in the Black Widow movie or Mar-Vell in Captain Marvel. Another form it takes is making the female characters completely overpowered and they can do no wrong as was the case with Emilia Clarke’s character G’iah in Secret Invasion.
Emilia Clarke as G’iah in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
In some of the most recent offerings the so-called heroes are actually performing villainous actions. One can see this in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where Falcon cooperates, aids, and even facilitates a terrorist. That show also sees the upstanding and just Agent 13 transform into the villainous Power Broker.
In WandaVision, Scarlet Witch mentally enslaves an entire town and faces no repercussions for it. That show also heavily pushed feminism with Marvel executives admitting they made the choice to not include Doctor Strange in the show because they did not want to have a white man teaching Wanda how to wield her abilities.
Superhero fatigue is a misnomer. The issue is poor storytelling tainted by ideologies aimed at corrupting and destroying people.
(L-R): Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Tommy (Jett Klyne), Vision (Paul Bettany), Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) in Marvel Studios’ WANDAVISION exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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