Over the next few years, we're going to go from two or three superhero movies a year to at least twice that. With Warner Bros. getting in on the action with their DC Extended Universe and Fox launching risky properties like Deadpool and Gambit, the genre is either going to get bigger and better than ever before or fizzle out as moviegoers become fatigued. The latter option is exactly what Steven Spielberg sees happening. However, he said the same thing back in 2013, so has the legendary filmmaker since seen the error of his ways? Nope.
"I still feel that way," he reveals in an interview with The Associated Press. "We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. It doesn't mean there won't be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns. Of course, right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I'm only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us."
Spielberg makes a valid point here; no genre remains on top forever, but saying that superhero movies will go the way of the Western (as in they pretty much stop existing and fail to make money on the odd occasion someone dares revisit them) seems a little ridiculous. After all, as long as they maintain their current level of quality, why would people lose interest to such a drastic extent? Marvel and DC have been in business for decades, and people have been buying their comics that whole time. Let us know your thoughts on these comments below.
About The Author:
Comic Book Reader. Film Lover. WWE and F1 Fan. Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and ComicBookMovie.com's #1 contributor.