Quentin Tarantino says Marvel actors aren’t movie stars

Quentin Tarantino wants you to know that he’s not a Marvel hater, unlike some of his fellow filmmakers — ahem, Martin Scorsese — but he still has some bones to pick with the MCU.

The topic came up as the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood writer-director continues to make press rounds to promote his new memoir, Cinema Speculation. In a new episode of the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Tarantino spoke about the “marvelization” of Hollywood and how Marel’s output is driven by intellectual property rather than star power. (via Mediation).

“Part of the Marvelization of Hollywood is … there’s all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” Tarantino said. “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean I’m not the first to say that. I think that’s been said a million times…but it’s like, you know, it’s those franchise characters that become stars.”

By Tarantino’s definition, are actors like Chris Evans (the “Captain America” ​​films) and Chris Hemsworth (the “Thor” films) movie stars? In his view, they are intellectual property ambassadors rather than marquees in the classic Hollywood sense. Though the Pulp Fiction director clarified, “To tell you the truth, I’m not even putting her down. But that’s … the legacy of Hollywood movies’ marvelization.”

He also clarified that he doesn’t hate Marvel films at all, but is annoyed that they all seem to interest Hollywood.

“I don’t love her. No, I don’t – I don’t hate her. Good. But I don’t love her. Right. I mean, look, I used to collect Marvel comics like crazy as a kid,” Tarantino said.

“There’s an aspect that if these films came out when I was in my 20’s I would be totally happy and totally loving them. I mean they wouldn’t be the only films being made. They would be these films alongside other films. But you know, I’m almost 60, so yeah. No, I’m not that excited about it,” he said.

Still, Tarantino is intimately familiar with the MCU, having revealed back in 2019 that he had a Marvel Studios binge before Avengers: Endgame. On a recent book tour for Cinema Speculation, he also credited the WWII comic Sgt. Nick Fury & His Howling Commandos” as the Marvel property he would most like to customize.

But Tarantino, who swears he’ll never make a Marvel movie, still defies the MCU’s cultural ubiquity. “My only ax to grind against them is that they’re the only things that seem made. And they’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement from a fanbase or even the studio that makes them. They look forward to that. And you know, it’s just the fact that right now they’re the entire representation of that era of film.”

Finally, he said, “There’s not really much room for anything else. That’s my problem.”

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