Quentin Tarantino has been receiving a wave of backlash for his comments that Marvel stars are “not movie stars.” However, it seems that the new Captain America agrees with him but just had a better way of explaining the thought process behind it. In his recent interview with the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Tarantino seemed to put down actors who appear as Marvel characters, saying, “they’re not movie stars, right?” An old Anthony Mackie interview from 2018 has now resurfaced, and it may provide a different perspective on the same comment.

Yahoo! Entertainment reported on an old appearance by Mackie, the new Captain America, at Comic-Con London, where he was seen making an almost identical statement to Tarantino. The main difference is that as a Marvel actor, Mackie went on to explain exactly what he meant, but explaining that when it comes to cinema audiences, there has been a shift in how actors and their characters are viewed. He said:

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This is almost word for word the quote Tarantino gave. However, Mackie continued:

“There are no movie stars anymore. Like, Anthony Mackie isn’t a movie star. The Falcon is a movie star. And that’s what’s weird.”

Have Marvel Movies Changed Cinema Forever?

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When it comes to Mackie’s comments, it is clear that he is talking about movies outside of the MCU. Hollywood has been invested in building franchises, and many other moves have simply been pushed together around these. There are obviously always exceptions to this, with some very good standalone movies being made over the last decade.

“It used to be with Tom Cruise and Will Smith and Stallone and Schwarzenegger, when you went to the movies, you went to see the Stallone movie. Now you go to see…X-Men. So the evolution of the superhero has meant the death of the movie star. It’s just a different time now. Hollywood makes movies for specific audiences as opposed to just making good movies. And that’s why people stopped going to the movies, because most of the movies suck.”

However, “movie stars” still obviously exist, with the names of actors like Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, and Tom Hanks still having the power to instantly give audiences an idea of the type of movie they are going to see. In Mackie’s comments, though, and partly in justification of Tarantino’s soundbite, it is true that, in the main, the last decade has seen people saying, “I’m going to see the new Doctor Strange movie” than “I’m going to see the new Benedict Cumberbatch film.”

On the whole, though, this hasn’t perhaps changed that much at all when you consider franchises have been around for some time. In the early days of cinema, audiences would flock to see the latest Marilyn Monroe or Marlon Brando movies. Since the ’60s, though, franchise movies and sequels have been changing that. The new James Bond movie, the new Rocky movie, and even the new Die Hard movie are examples of the character or franchise taking over from people wanting to see a Sean Connery, Stallone, or Bruce Willis movie.

Marvel’s dominance of the box office has advanced this kind of mindset more than ever, but in the end, behind every good character is a good actor who brings them to life. Whether this is precisely what Quentin Tarantino meant when making his comment, there may be some truth in it when put in some kind of context.