Chris Evans Defends Superhero Filmmaking, Says Marvel Has “Objectively Phenomenal Films”: “If It Were Easy, There’d Be A Lot More Good Ones”

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen major hiccups and pivots across the world of superhero moviemaking. Warner Bros. Discovery brought in James Gunn and Peter Safran to reboot the DCU via the newly formed DC Studios after they decided to end the Snyderverse experiment with a new “Superman” reboot currently in production. Sony Pictures, on the other hand, while achieving success with their animated “Spider-Verse” films, their live-action spinoffs like the PG-13 vampire project “Morbius” and the dead-on-arrival pic “Madame Web” have struggled to thrill general audiences. Even the previously Teflon-like Marvel Studios had a tough time getting buts in seats to see the “Captain Marvel” sequel, “The Marvels,” last year with talk the studio would be pivoting to focus more on quality than quantity.

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Making superhero projects is a tricky business; nobody knows it better than the actors working on them. Chris Evans was vital to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s success alongside other “Avengers” cast members such as Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, and others. The former MCU alumnus spoke at The Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, Washington, and said (via The Laughing Place) that superhero movies are extremely tough to get right, and if it was that easy, everyone would knock out home runs at each bat, something that’s difficult to achieve.

“Comic book movies in general, for whatever reason, don’t always get the credit that I think they deserve,” Evans said. “I think they’re these big, giant movies; there’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. But I think the empirical evidence is in: they’re not easy to make. If it was easier, there’d be a lot more good ones.”

“I’m not throwing shade! I’ve been a part of a few that missed. It happens! Making a movie is tough. It’s tough. More cooks in the kitchen doesn’t make it easier. The Russo brothers have really done some great work. I don’t want to highlight specific films in the Marvel catalog, but some of them are phenomenal, just really objectively, independently great movies, and I think they deserve a little more credit.”

Evans speaks from experience, having worked on four “Avengers” films alongside three of his own “Captain America” movies, seeing the rise of the MCU from the ground floor as a young actor coaxed into signing a massive nine-picture deal. There is a very specific perspective that MCU actors like Evans have and can share compared to what is going on at Sony and WB.

Marvel Studios tends to be the gold standard in the genre, and even the mediocre films tend to have some redeeming qualities that rushed projects from other studios don’t often have. The studio hopes that their first big R-rated film, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” will inject some much-needed energy this July and will be the only MCU-related feature film released in 2024. Meanwhile, Sony is likely praying to the box office gods that their villain-focused spinoffs like “Kraven The Hunter” and “Venom 3” fair much better later in the year.

The future for the stability and health of the superhero genre is far from clear, and there is room for all these studios to improve their current situations. Hopefully, they can learn the right lessons from the flops and mishaps. There had been some industry chatter about Evans making some grand return to the MCU, but that has yet to materialize or be announced officially by Marvel/Disney. Evans himself has downplayed those rumblings.