‘Red Sparrow’ Director Turned Down Marvel & DC Movies

Director Francis Lawrence is reteaming with Jennifer Lawrence for their fifth collaboration together, though it will be their first outside The Hunger Games franchise.

Though it’s not a superhero film, Red Sparrow has been recognized for its similarities to Black Widow from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And though Lawrence made his directorial debut with a comic book movie, he doesn’t seem interested in returning to the genre anytime soon.

Lawrence spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast when he revealed that he’s been offered certain gigs and taken different meetings with companies, though they’ve never gone anywhere.

“I’ve never had a Marvel meeting – I’ve never had a Marvel meeting with Marvel people. I have been offered Marvel material at other studios and haven’t been interested,” said Lawrence, “and I’ve had a DC meeting.”

Lawrence made his debut with Constantine starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz. And while Red Sparrow might draw comparisons to Scarlett Johansson’s character, he doesn’t seem eager to get involved with Marvel Studios.

“I think that they all tend to be really, really solid and some of them much better than solid, but there is a sameness to them,” Lawrence said. “I have to say the one standout for me so far from the ones that I’ve seen was the first Guardians of the Galaxy. That one knocked my socks off. It felt like an outlier in that world in terms of personality, originality and emotion. All of it came together in a really, truly amazing way.”

And while fans have pointed out the connection to Black Widow, Lawrence has rebuked those claims and pointed out the obvious inspiration from the source material in an interview with Screen Rant last month.

“There’s people who think it’s very similar to the Black Widow story, this is not pulled from Black Widow, this is pulled from Red Sparrow [the novel the movie is based on], you know, it’s just written by a guy who was in the CIA [Jason Matthews]. It’s like, his references are coming from a very very different place from that,” Lawrence said. “But there’ll always be that. People like to put things in boxes, and I think is a really unique film. This is a thriller, it’s not action, again it’s not gadgety. It’s a hard-R. There’s violence, it’s a bit perverse, it’s suspenseful, a lot of intrigue. It’s a very different kind of spy film.”

Red Sparrow opens in theaters March 2, 2018.