Just days after skewering the MCU, Jamie Lee Curtis is walking back a comment she made at Comic-Con last weekend. EW reports that while playing a rapid-fire question game with other convention attendees, answering interview questions with a one-word answer, the “Borderlands” actress curtly called the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe “bad.” Her and her cast mates erupted in laughter, but days later, Curtis isn’t finding the backlash she received online all that funny.
Curtis took to X this morning to clarify her stance on what she said last weekend. “My comments about Marvel were stupid and I will do better,” she wrote in her tweet. “I’ve reached out to Kevin Feige and will no longer play in that mud slinging sandbox of competition we call the internet nor will I engage in the toilet paper promotion or game play that is designed for clicks not content or conversation.” The actress signed off her tweet with “JLC,” her initials.
But JLC wasn’t the only star who had fun slinging mud at the MCU at Comic-Con last weekend. “Speak No Evil” star Mackenzie Davis answered the same question about the MCU with “death,” although she admitted she wasn’t familiar with what a “phase” in the MCU even meant. Meanwhile, Davis’ co-star James McAvoy, who played Charles Xavier in the recent “X-Men” films, chirped, “Hey, Marvel, she just terminated you.” It’s unclear if McAvoy’s version of Charles will ever show up in the MCU; given this quip, probably not.
Still, it’s not as if these comments are in bad taste, or anything Feige & co. haven’t heard before. It’s become increasingly popular for fans and actors like to trounce the MCU after its “Avengers: Endgame” apex because, let’s face it: the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t in a great place right now, and everyone knows it. Marvel Studios is coming off a disastrous (in relative terms) 2023, with “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” both flopping at the box office, with the latter the MCU’s lowest-grossing movie ever. And while “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the big hit Marvel needed it to be, it’s also the studio’s only theatrical release this year. Shawn Levy‘s film will hit the $1 billion worldwide gross mark before summer ends, but it hasn’t necessarily righted a sinking ship.
And this isn’t the only time Curtis has been snarky about the MCU in recent years either. The actress took to X in 2022 to drum up a feud between “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and Marvel’s marquee movie that year, “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.” “Is it JUST me? Does it seem STRANGE that our tiny movie that could and did and continues to do #1movieinamerica and is TRULY MARVELOUS, out marvels any Marvel movie they put out there,” Curtis tweeted. “Is this one of those Internet feuds? All I’ll say is we would SLAY in a family feud contest @familyfeud with the Doctor Strange strangers.” Of course, Curtis was right about the Daniels‘ A24 film being marvellous: it went on to become an Oscar night darling, something no Marvel Studio film has ever accomplished.
But JLC had to walk back those comments, too in an interview with People. “I have nothing against Marvel as an entity. I’ve seen a lot of Marvel movies,” Curtis told the outlet about the feud she tried to create. “What I was talking about is that “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was a little movie that could … and we were able to tell a multiverse story that really touched people. What I was trying to talk about was it doesn’t have to be a Marvel movie in order to be a spectacle and to really move you.” And Curtis is right about that; plus, there’s nothing wrong with a “a little friendly competition.”
And Curtis isn’t averse to joining the MCU either, although she admitted in the interview she doubts there’d ever be a role for her in it. “Honestly, I can’t imagine that they will ever come calling because I kicked up some dust,” Curtis continued. “But I’m a collaborating artist. I work with a lot of people on a lot of different things, and if the role was interesting and if I could bring what I do to it, of course I would. What am I going to do, say no?” Still, JLC recognizes it’s not a realistic option for her. “I would find it hard to imagine that Marvel’s going to figure out something to do with a 64-year-old woman,” she went on. “I’m afraid if I do a Marvel movie, they’re going to stick dots all over me and make me act by myself in a warehouse somewhere.”
Maybe Curtis’ next big movie is the next best thing in that regard. The actress stars in “Borderlands,” which hits theaters on August 9. And by that point, “Deadpool & Wolverine” may have hit $1 billion at the global box office. Speaking of which, Ryan Reynolds himself had a quip of his own about this whole JLC-MCU situation. “Wait, is everyone expected to apologize for slamming Marvel post-Endgame?” tweeted the “Deadpool” actor this AM. Good point, Mr. Reynolds: this isn’t that big a deal, and maybe Feige and Marvel Studios need to become a little less sensitive.