Martin Scorsese Says He’s Never Been Asked to Do a Marvel Movie

If you’re holding out hopes to see Martin Scorsese directing a flick set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you might not want to hold your breath. In a recent director’s roundtable hosted by THR, Scorsese says the Disney-owned Marvel Studios has never approached him about doing a superhero flick. If you’re not surprised after his latest anti-Marvel comments, you’re not the only one.

“No. Never came to me,” Scorsese says about being approached to shoot a Marvel flick. “I remember when Disneyland was built. I’m that ancient, you know? I was here in 1970 in L.A. and one of the aspirations of the studios was to become as important to American culture as Disneyland. And the first studio to really do that was Universal with the tour. And then you add the blockbuster on top of that — and why not?”

He adds, “People go to the movie. Enjoy it. That sort of thing. So the sense of a theme park has always been there. It’s not bad. We used to love to go to amusement parks. But now in an amusement park, you have the film.”

The latest comments echo those he’s previously made in which he compares Marvel films to amusement parks, essentially discrediting them as legitimate forms of cinema. “Many of the elements that define cinema as I know it are there in Marvel pictures,” Scorsese writes. “What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk. The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes.”

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 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, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.

If you’d like to see Scorsese direct a Marvel movie, what would you like to see him do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Netflix