Chadwick Boseman Unfazed By Scorsese's Marvel Comments, Questions Timing

As the war over Oscar winner Martin Scorsese's comments about Marvel movies reaches its fever [...]

By Spencer Perry

As the war over Oscar winner Martin Scorsese's comments about Marvel movies reaches its fever pitch, one of the breakout stars from the MCU has approached the subject with a more measured tone. The Black Panther himself Chadwick Boseman was asked about the ongoing "debate" surrounding the filmmaker's comments and whether the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe qualifies as "cinema," something that Scorsese elaborated on recently in an expanded New York Times opinion piece. Speaking with BBC Radio host Simon Mayo, the Civil War and Endgame star revealed he has an array of thoughts regarding Scorsese's comments, including the timing of it all and that it's potentially just part of an elaborate awards campaign scheme.

"I have to respect his opinion because he's a genius at what he does," Boseman said. "At the same time you've got to think about when he's saying it. He's saying it when he's possibly campaigning for an award. He's saying it at a time when he's making a Netflix movie, so that's how eyes get on his film and it's not going to be in the cinemas. It's not going to be seen the best way. So, he again is speaking to the time period. He is speaking also to his advantage. So you have to take the truth of it. You also have to say, well, for me, the statement doesn't, like you're asking me also because I did the first, the superhero movie that was nominated for a (Best Picture) Oscar. I'm secure in that."

Boseman elaborated further on his other line of thinking about the entire subject, that perhaps the elements Scorsese believes to be absent from Marvel Studios movies are actually present but that cultural and generational divides make them not as easy to spot for some audience members. The MCU star specifically cited the response from African American audiences to Black Panther, saying:

"The mystery that Scorsese is talking about, it's in Black Panther. And I think the funny thing about it is if he saw Black Panther, he didn't get that. He didn't get that there was this feeling of being unsure. There was this feeling of not knowing what was gonna happen, that black people feel. Cause we never had a superhero like this before. We thought that they, you know, white people will kill us off. So it's a possibility that we could be gone. So we felt that angst, we felt that thing that you would feel from cinema when we watched it. Maybe Scorsese didn't get that when he watched it. That's cultural. Maybe it's generational. I don't know, but I'm secure in what we did, you know? So his statements don't really bother me."

Scorsese's new film, The Irishman, is now playing in select theaters and hits Netflix on November 27th. Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.

(H/T The Playlist)

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