Nicolas Cage Calls Marvel Movies 'A Glorified WWE' — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Nicolas Cage compared the Marvel Cinematic Universe to "a well-funded and glorified WWE" while speaking at a Texas fan convention, saying he finds it "hard" to watch "50-plus and otherwise intelligent" actors don "ridiculous outfits" for fight scenes
- Cage, 62, currently stars in the Sony Marvel series Spider-Noir, which was cancelled after a single season, and previously played Ghost Rider in two Marvel films
- Cage told Variety his draw to Spider-Noir was aesthetic — he modeled his performance on Bogart, Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson for the show's black-and-white format
- Martin Scorsese previously likened Marvel films to "theme parks," while Francis Ford Coppola called the company "despicable," Denis Villeneuve said they were "cut and paste" copies, and Ken Loach deemed superhero films "boring" and "a cynical exercise" with "nothing to do with the art of cinema"
- Cage will next star as John Madden in a biopic directed by David O. Russell, playing the Super Bowl impresario
Why it matters: Cage's critique lands with extra weight given his own Marvel track record — two Ghost Rider films plus the just-cancelled Spider-Noir — making this insider skepticism rather than outsider dismissal. His WWE comparison joins a growing chorus of veteran filmmakers (Scorsese, Coppola, Villeneuve, Loach) publicly questioning superhero cinema's artistic value, a debate that has persisted for years without denting the genre's commercial dominance.
Ask SkimNews
