Marvel Is Happy to Leave Their Villain Problem Unsolved
The most consistent and accurate criticism of Marvel’s film output is that they lack compelling villains, but the studio don’t seem to mind. On a recent visit to the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige addressed the issue with reporters. He told io9:
“It always starts with what serves the story the most and what serves the hero the most. A big criticism of ours is that we focus on the heroes more than the villains, I think that’s probably true.”
That’s a clever reframing of the issue, and it’s also a rather Aristotelian view of drama that I don’t happen to share. I'd rather let the characters drive the story than let the needs of the plot define the characters. But they are superhero movies and they tend to be pretty plot-driven, so I won’t argue it. I do think that one reason Marvel’s Netflix series are so good is that they spend so much time developing the villains, but that is probably neither here nor there. Feige’s here to talk about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and he says it’s another case of slightly mundane villains, although that’s probably not the word he would use.
“Taserface and Ayesha [the antagonists of Vol.2] are less grandiose in their ambitions than Ronan was, for instance. Ayesha just wants to kill them for slighting her, and Taserface wants to lead the Ravagers and thinks that Yondu got soft.”
Feige continued:
“In 2008, two superhero movies that came out. One focused on the villain, one focused on the hero, and we at Marvel looked at them, like ‘Yeah, we focus on the heroes. We don’t mind that. We like that.’”
In case you don’t have the entire timeline of superhero movies memorized, the two superhero movies of 2008 were Iron Man, Marvel Studios’ first film, and The Dark Knight, maybe the greatest superhero movie ever made. Feige quickly realized that little bit could be taken out of context:
“Please don’t start a flame war. Nobody wants that. We don’t do that. But, again, it really always is what serves the story.”
As we learned yesterday, Thanos will be a big enough presence in Avengers: Infinity War that he could be considered the main character, which is an interesting change of pace for Marvel, and one that I hope they can pull off. Given that there are approximately 7000 superheroes suiting up for that one, centering the film on the villain may be the only way to tell a coherent story, which is what Marvel says they are always there to serve, so maybe it’s not such a change of pace after all.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be in theaters May 5. Avengers: Infinity War is currently in production and will come to theaters near you on May 4, 2018.