It’s well-known that Christopher Nolan does not share the same sentiments about the superhero genre as Martin Scorsese does, the latter famously called out Marvel as the nemesis of cinema and the former absolutely adores Zack Snyder’s DCEU.
In a recent New York Times interview, Nolan says that Marvel Studios was a savior of the industry after before, during and after the pandemic:
Coming out of Covid, you say, ‘Thank God for Marvel movies.
His reasoning is that theaters desperately needed to make money, and Marvel, at least back then, was a moneymaker. It helps that during this interview Nolan was sitting right next to Robert Downey Jr, and he had nothing but praise for the ‘Iron Man’ actor going as far as to say that his casting as Tony Stark was the most shape shifting moment for the industry:
The truth is, I think Jon Favreau casting Robert as Tony Stark is one of the most significant and consequential casting decisions in Hollywood history. It wound up defining our industry.
As far as box-office dominance goes, Downey’s casting is definitely a landmark moment in the history of movies — it resulted in the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a whopping 33 movies and $29 billion in box office receipts. It no doubt helped many theaters stay afloat.
In the process, I can also admit having liked a handful of these films, not many, but some exceptions that slightly bended the rules of the genre, including “Iron Man,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
As far as filmmakers who are not thanking God for Marvel … Over these last few years, I’ve been updating a list of all the directors that have publicly criticized superhero movies. It’s a lengthy one, filled with real masters of the craft:
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Bong Joon-ho, Lucrecia Martel, David Cronenberg, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Lynch, Woody Allen, Paul Verhoeven, Terry Gilliam, James Cameron Ridley Scott, James Gray, Jane Campion, Sean Baker, James Mangold, Martin McDonagh, Luc Besson, William Friedkin, Ken Loach, Oliver Stone and John Woo.