celeb news Variety skulldrags Marvel actors: No star power, flops outside MCU

[Indigo Blue]

MCU isn’t going anywhere. Ppl need to get used to it. 

[blewis1103]

4 hours ago, prézli said:

Funny that MCU killed the two most diverse actors Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett Johansson received two Oscar nominations in the same year (for Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit) at the tail end of her MCU run.

[TouchinFree]

I think it's the "Rachel Green" curse. Where once you play that character then it is difficult for the actor in question to have a stable career and a successful string of films continuously. 

 

Unless you've already kickstarted a successful career . Aka Jennifer lawrence playing mystique (superhero). But ultimately superhero movies don't require much acting talent as other genres. 

[Beyonce-Minaj]

Chris Patt (MCU) and Jennifer Lawrence (MU's Fox-Now-About-To-Be-MCU) in "Passengers", anyone? That was a box office smash! How about Zoe Saldana in "Avatar"? Ironically, look at Jeremy Renner in "Mission: Imposisble" and his other movies. Then see Vin Diesel in his "The Fast & Furious" franchise and proceed to view Bradley Cooper & Samuel L. Jackon's filmography post-MCU. For crying out loud, take note of some of the cast members of "Black Panther"! I'm sure there's more actors in the MCU in said similar boat, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Sure, the aforementioned actors are NO Tom-Cruise-caliber-box-office-pull-type-of-entities in terms of FREQUENCY, BUT, Tom has his fair share of flops and some of the actors I listed arguably rival his 2010's & 2020's box office attraction when factoring everything into consideration. "Maverick" and "Mission: Impossible" are his MCU-esque signatures that he can always fall back on, and just because he's starred in movies in the 2010's & will star in new projects in the 2020's and beyond does NOT guarantee a flop-free film. It's straight up fortuitousness.  The main reasons why SOME MCU actors are flopping partially pertains to the lackluster nature and missing grandiosity of the plot (notice how I never mentioned QUALITY), and timing in the context of both the notion of "at the right place and the right time" and MCU actors simply LACKING a schedule that enables them to do a barrage of movies after movies to increase the likelihood of playing in a blockbuster hit. Hypothetically, you mean to tell me if Elizabeth Olsen got Harry Potter (Wanda pun intended) & Fast & Furious roles, it would equate to the movies flopping? Jeremy Renner being part of a new LOTR movie (Hawkeye pun intended) would flop? Scarlett and Sebastian would make "Mission: Impossible"  flop? Flipping the script, if Denzel and Meryl starred in an MCU movie, would their post-MCU movies flop one after the other endlessly??? Brie Larson (the most disliked actor in the MCU, unfortunately) is starring in "The Fast & Furious", and it will be her 3rd box office smashing franchise. Correct me if I wrong, I don't believe there's an MCU curse or even such a solid, noticeable concept as a  core "fanbase" that will make a movie smash. Having said that, the article probably does NOT have a point. I need to read firm arguments in order to be swayed in the other direction. 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Beyonce-Minaj

[canyonmoon]

On 7/26/2022 at 8:03 AM, Valentine said:

The same could be said about Michael Fassbender. Literally a no one outside his Magneto roles

 

You mean two-time Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, who’s also starred in acclaimed, award-winning indies like Fish Tank and Shame, and has a Taika Waititi sports drama and a David Fincher thriller coming up? Be serious.

[Hephaestus]

On 7/23/2022 at 5:40 PM, MingYouToo said:

I just don't think the correlation isn't there. I think its more of a case of the 'Hollywood megastar' dying out the same way the Beyonce's and the Taylor's of the music industry are an ancient and dying breed, name me ONE Hollywood actor post 2010s that has that instantaneous box office pull, not even Jennifer Lawrence had that.  

 

I mean sure you have Holland, Downey and Hemsworth who are all lowkey flops outside of their Marvel roles but you also have Johannson who has been smashing it with Marriage Story + Jojo Rabbit, Pugh who had had nonstop bangers with Midsommar + Little Women + now the highly anticipated Don't Worry Darling, Zendaya who has had a fruitful career outside of being MJ (Euphoria, Dune).

 

I think its also important to note that the MCU has actors who, while not being box office juggernauts, have had acclaimed roles left right and center. Case in point: Elizabeth Olsen. She's more publicly known as both Wanda and the lost Olsen sister but she's had a string of critically acclaimed projects from Silent House (amazing horror film btw), Martha Marcy May, Wind River, Oldboy, Sorry For Your Loss, Ingrid Goes West. Case in point #2: Benedict Cumberbatch. He has his blockbuster smashes with Dr. Strange but also has amazing TV presence with Dr. Who, has amazing ACCLAIMED roles (something Tom Cruise will never see the light of day with) with The Imitation Game, Power of the Dog (best film of 2021 imo) and Courier.

 

Some MCU actors are just not the type to be blockbuster pulls and are more of the indie type and I think its reflective with how they chose to go to the MCU (a lot of them say 'they want the big superhero movie every now and then then return to small dramatic roles').

 

tl;dr: mcu actors having no star power is less of a 'the mcu cant produce talent' but more of the hollywood star dying out because of big franchises taking over instead of the big 'star actor'.

 

 

On 7/23/2022 at 6:14 PM, Achilles. said:

I mean, I’m not really sure how fair it is to target Marvel actors specifically when it’s a recurring trend in nearly any franchise that few if any stars go on to become major box office draws. The same holds true of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games (outside of JLaw), Star Wars…

 

The leads of Twilight basically had to spend a decade starring in indie films in order to get their careers to a point where they got an Oscar nomination (Kristen) and a huge franchise smash (Pattinson). Most of the problem is that these stars keep choosing obviously bad projects that not even their potential star power could save.
 

They need to be more discerning, as we’ve seen with Johansson, Cumberbatch, and Hiddleston to name a few. 

Spilled 

 

Also not Top Gun being used as an example when The Mummy single-handedly shut down the chances of a Universal Monsters Universe. And the irony of OP being a Fassbender stan... 

[prézli]

On 7/26/2022 at 2:59 PM, blewis1103 said:

Scarlett Johansson received two Oscar nominations in the same year (for Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit) at the tail end of her MCU run.

lol. So, Variety is right.

[More Than A Melody]

I think this discourse is a lot more nuanced than what most people are allowing it to be. IMO the actors that become faceless are the ones who play big characters who didn't have a notable career prior to their roles, which is, arguably, a very small amount of names, percentage wise, compared to the total number of actors there.

 

The MCU has Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Rudd, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Marisa Tomei, and Ryan Reynolds, to name a few of the actors that absolutely have "butts in seats" power outside of the MCU and who had successful careers outside of it too.

 

While I agree that Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, et al have become so synonymous to their characters that it's gonna be really hard for them to ever become big movie stars, for each of those names, you have an equal amount of names that, while not being THAT big prior to being in Marvel, have somehow managed to STILL make a name for themselves and be recognized outside of their characters, like Elizabeth Olsen, Lupita Nyong'o, Brie Larson, and Chris Pratt. Freaking Zendaya.

 

We can argue if there's a "this generation's Tom Cruise" but it all sounds a lot like a Gen X/Millennial crying that old times were better. Tom Cruise is this generation's Tom Cruise cause he's still active and working. He's a white man. White men don't go obsolete in Hollywood... ever. Jack Nicholson is still alive and kicking lmao.

 

Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Ana de Armas, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, those are box office draws, some more than others, but they are lol.

 

Why are we acting like Jennifer Lawrence belongs to another generation? She's 31... Julia Roberts was 33 when she did Erin Brockovich. I think a lot of people are romanticizing and idolizing the past because it's their childhood. There absolutely are big movie stars right now, the old ones just look more famous to you because you grew up knowing them. But on a tet a tet for their filmographies you'll notice that there isn't that much of a difference for most of them, Tom Cruise included, who's being extremely gassed up in this thread for being in a handful of big franchises. Before Top Gun, nobody would've mentioned him as their first name if asked to head count big movie stars. If you wanna talk about an actual movie star that's hard to replicate, you should look at Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

That said, I do agree that IP movies are taking over and that it's sad. Support original movies instead.

 

Not everyone can do what my fav does and be in both, while not even having acting as his day job 

[Kakihara]

not Chrises in spandex 

[Beyonce-Minaj]

5 hours ago, More Than A Melody said:

I think this discourse is a lot more nuanced than what most people are allowing it to be. IMO the actors that become faceless are the ones who play big characters who didn't have a notable career prior to their roles, which is, arguably, a very small amount of names, percentage wise, compared to the total number of actors there.

 

The MCU has Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Rudd, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Marisa Tomei, and Ryan Reynolds, to name a few of the actors that absolutely have "butts in seats" power outside of the MCU and who had successful careers outside of it too.

 

While I agree that Sebastian Stan, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, et al have become so synonymous to their characters that it's gonna be really hard for them to ever become big movie stars, for each of those names, you have an equal amount of names that, while not being THAT big prior to being in Marvel, have somehow managed to STILL make a name for themselves and be recognized outside of their characters, like Elizabeth Olsen, Lupita Nyong'o, Brie Larson, and Chris Pratt. Freaking Zendaya.

 

We can argue if there's a "this generation's Tom Cruise" but it all sounds a lot like a Gen X/Millennial crying that old times were better. Tom Cruise is this generation's Tom Cruise cause he's still active and working. He's a white man. White men don't go obsolete in Hollywood... ever. Jack Nicholson is still alive and kicking lmao.

 

Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Ana de Armas, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, those are box office draws, some more than others, but they are lol.

 

Why are we acting like Jennifer Lawrence belongs to another generation? She's 31... Julia Roberts was 33 when she did Erin Brockovich. I think a lot of people are romanticizing and idolizing the past because it's their childhood. There absolutely are big movie stars right now, the old ones just look more famous to you because you grew up knowing them. But on a tet a tet for their filmographies you'll notice that there isn't that much of a difference for most of them, Tom Cruise included, who's being extremely gassed up in this thread for being in a handful of big franchises. Before Top Gun, nobody would've mentioned him as their first name if asked to head count big movie stars. If you wanna talk about an actual movie star that's hard to replicate, you should look at Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

That said, I do agree that IP movies are taking over and that it's sad. Support original movies instead.

 

Not everyone can do what my fav does and be in both, while not even having acting as his day job 

First bolded: Exactly! Denzel and Meryl included

 

Second bolded: That's why I covet your fav's nigh-perfect entertainment career. I wish my two favs could have what Harry supernaturally managed to procure out-of-sight! 

[shinyshimmery]

Marvel actors aren't nobodies.... so this criticism is ridiculous. Big names are attached to the MCU and none of these actors are/were struggling for work. 

[More Than A Melody]

12 hours ago, Beyonce-Minaj said:

First bolded: Exactly! Denzel and Meryl included

 

Second bolded: That's why I covet your fav's nigh-perfect entertainment career. I wish my two favs could have what Harry supernaturally managed to procure out-of-sight! 

I think Bey could've had it no doubts, but instead she became a legend, and you can't really begrudge her for that.

[JustHoran]

Tom Holland has been doing just fine.