Thor: Love and Thunder Writer Claims Superhero Storytellers Are More Exciting Than The Actual Superheroes
John F. Trent
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Thor: Love and Thunder writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson declared that the people behind the camera are more exciting to her than the actual superheroes.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 20: Natalie Portman of Marvel Studios’ ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2019 Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Robinson’s comments came in a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter for their upcoming Next Gen issue.
When asked about the future of the genre Robinson said, “We are at a point where women and people of color are front and center.”
She continued, “And, yes, the people onscreen look different, but what do people behind the camera look like? That’s what is most exciting to me about the future of superhero movies. I don’t think it is the superheroes, think it is the storytellers.”
Robinson also addressed including real-world anxieties in her stories saying, “You never want to bring in an element that is going to take people out of the movie.”
She added, “I don’t think running at topical or political stuff for the sake of it is very interesting, but there is so much you can mine when you take something very real and put it in this hyper-world.”
Captain Carter (center) and the Howling Commandos in Marvel Studios’ WHAT IF…? exclusively on Disney+. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Robinson’s comments about women and people of color being front and center for the future of the genre echoes what Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso recently said.
The Marvel producer appeared at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to promote Marvel’s What If…? series back in June.
During a Woman in Animation panel Alonso said that diversity, inclusion, and gender parity “all go hand-in-hand with showing the world as it is… There’s about 6,000 characters in the Marvel library that we have access to, so if this goes right, we will be telling these stories for many, many, many, many, many generations to come.”
“And the importance of laying the ground for what’s to come is that in those stories there’s many different characters that you can actually voice,” she added.
ROME, ITALY – OCTOBER 24: Victoria Alonso attends the photocall of the movie “Eternals” during the 16th Rome Film Fest 2021 on October 24, 2021 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images for Marvel)
Alonso would also claim she’s asked , “Aren’t you tired every time your movie comes it’s number one in the world?”
She went on to describe the question as “odd” before elaborating, “The reason we have that success consistently is because our audience is global. You cannot have a global audience and not somehow start to represent it… For us, it was really, really, really important to have that.”
Source: Captain Marvel
Alonso continued, “For the longest of time, we heard a woman-led film will never open. I say, ‘Please check, Captain Marvel made a lot of money.’ Then they always told us that Black Panther was never going to open and that nobody wanted a completely Black cast, and that made $1.3B.”
“So you can look at it from the social point of view, the cultural point of view. But truthfully, this is a business. From a fiscal point of view, you are leaving money on the table by not representing,” she explained.
Source: Black Panther
She then provided some numbers about Marvel’s audience, “I think 51% of our audience is female, 28% of our audience is Hispanic. If we don’t represent the people that watch what we make, eventually they’ll go elsewhere because somebody else will figure it out.”
Alonso concluded, “We can only tell stories if we succeed and actually have money to make them. So the idea being, ‘If it makes money, why not make it?’ To me it seemed like a very simple equation, but it took a lot of time, a lot of talking.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 27: Victoria Alonso attends the UK Gala Screening of Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” in London, UK on October 27, 2021.
Alonso also detailed in a Reddit AMA back in 2019, “The best part of working for Marvel Studios is 100% all of it. But most importantly, to be able to show new generations the characters that represent them in each and every way has given me great pride.”
While not specifically talking about women or people of color, Kevin Feige promised Marvel Studios would be introducing more homosexual characters.
He told Variety, “There have been gay heroes before in the comics. It is more than past time in the movies. It’s just the start.”
“There have been gay heroes before in the comics. It is more than past time in the movies,” Kevin Feige says of the Marvel film’s first gay superhero. “It’s just the start.” https://t.co/F6rov2HB1g pic.twitter.com/XZXMs5G4zo
— Variety (@Variety) October 19, 2021
What do you make of Robinson’s comments?
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