DOCTOR STRANGE Director Explains Superhero Movies Need to Evolve Significantly and Be Original to Excite Fans Again

The director of Marvel’s Doctor Strange, Scott Derrickson, has some thoughts on the current state of superhero / comic book films and how to get fans excited again for the genre. He believes the studios and filmmakers need to bring more originality to these projects and that the films need to evolve significantly.

During a recent interview with ComicBook, the filmmaker was asked if he would return to direct comic book movies, and this was his response:

“I do think that we’re at a point in time where audiences, and myself included, don’t want to see anything that’s too close to what’s been done. I’m much more interested in the daring spin-offs than the daring genre experimentation with comic book cinema. I think that’s the way you get audiences to reengage with it is by evolving it significantly. That would be my big requirement to go back into that kind of IP-driven comic book world.”

He went on to say:

“You can make something that’s original and people haven’t seen before from IP, but it has to be the right IP, and you have to be willing to treat it with originality. But I do think that audiences want original programming in their event movies now. That is a major shift that has happened, and it’s significant, and I just hope that studios don’t continue to flog the sequel franchise filmmaking in a way that costs us more time before they realize, hey, the audiences are really ready for new material.”

I can agree with that. Superhero movies are just falling flat with audiences these days. One of the most recent ones that I watched was Blue Beetle, and while a lot of people liked it, for me there was nothing new, original, or different. It told a story that we’ve seen a hundred times before.

We are definitely at a point where superhero movies need to evolve and start doing unique and different things. Getting more of the same and substandard storytelling just isn’t going to cut it.

When talking about why he was interested in making a Doctor Strange movie, Derrickson said, “I didn’t make Doctor Strange because it was a Marvel movie or because it was a comic book movie. I made it because it was specifically the Doctor Strange comics, which I loved, and had really strong, powerful feelings about, and felt like I was the right filmmaker to adapt that.”

What do you think needs to happen with superhero movies to keep audiences interested and engaged with them?