Samuel L. Jackson Shares His Thoughts on The Success of Marvel and The Failings of Other Superhero Films

It’s kind of funny to think about how there was a time in Hollywood where studios did not want to make comic book or superhero movies because they thought no one would be interested in watching them. Boy… were they wrong!

Maybe it just wasn’t the right time. The right people had to come along to effectively make great comic book movies. Before Marvel Studios came around and started a movement with their cinematic universe, we were getting films for X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman and a lot of those were really great! There were a few bad apples during that time, though, like Daredevil and Catwoman. Let’s face it, there’s always going to be some bad apples.

In a recent interview with Samuel L. Jackson promoting his upcoming film Glass, he shares his thoughts on the comic book films, the success of Marvel, and the lack of success for others. In the process, he explains that there have always been “super” films, just not presented in the way that we expect these days.

This is what he told digital spy:

"There have always been things like that. Even when I was a kid, we had Buck Rogers and some other things that were super in another kind of way, but not just quite that."

"Most times, the super things tended to be monster movies, even the Japanese versions of Godzilla and Rodan, all those things, I always look at those as super movies also in another way. It was just a matter of time for the rest of the world to catch up."

"I've been a comic book fan my whole life, so I knew there was an appetite for movies about the things that we read that had a space for those particular characters that we loved in those comic books to be realised in a real kind of way for us.”

When talking about the success of Marvel, he says:

"So I'm not surprised by the success of them. I'm more surprised by the not success of some of the others."

I imagine he’s referring to DC and the handful of other studios who have been trying to build their own superhero franchises and universes.

It’s just taking some studios a little longer to figure out what they want and what the fans want from them. DC is getting there! While I have been harsh on some of their earlier films, I really like what I’ve seen from Wonder Woman and Aquaman, so I’m excited for what they plan on delivering in the future.

What are your thoughts on what Jackson had to say here?