By Andrew Sanford | News | February 19, 2025
The MCU is three years from its twentieth anniversary—twenty years of quips, capes, and after-credit scenes. That’s two decades filled with copious amounts of CGI and movie theater dominance. Thirty-five Marvel movies have been released in that time, creating a franchise whose scope will likely never be replicated. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a massive achievement, and depending on who you ask, has been responsible for both the continued success of movie theaters and their degradation.
The latter point gets brought up more often than the former. Marvel produces big-budget four-quadrant films that offer little in the sense of anything challenging or culturally relevant (with occasional exceptions). The movies have begun to look flat and contain dialogue that feels algorithmically generated as their production took on methods more akin to an assembly line. I’ve certainly enjoyed my share of Marvel films, but it’s hard to ignore the seems that are showing. Still, I’d never go as far as to call them artistically bankrupt, and neither would John Malkovich who will appear in Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Malkovich is not the first high-profile actor to join the MCU. The likes of Glenn Close, Robert Redford, Angela Bassett, and Gregg Turkington have joined Team Marvel over the almost two decades of its existence (twenty f***ing years!!). The movies have managed to attract very serious performers and creators despite others lamenting them as theme park rides (nothing but respect for our lord and savior Martin Scorcese). Still, while these actors may not have issues with the artistry of the films, they are often motivated by something else: fat, stanky cash.
That is certainly the case with the longtime member of the Steppenwolf Theater. John Malkovich recently revealed that he had turned Marvel down previously because they weren’t offering him enough money. “The reason I didn’t do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever,” Malkovich explained to GQ Magazine. “I didn’t like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite grueling to make… If you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. You don’t want to pay me, it’s cool, but then I don’t want to do it, because I’d rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.” Makes sense to me!
The actor went on to explain that doing the film was “not that dissimilar to doing theater” noting that “you imagine a bunch of stuff that isn’t there and do your little play.” He isn’t the first actor to describe these kinds of films this way. It adds to my respect for him. Not only is he willing to hold out until he is fairly compensated, he takes it deathly seriously when he’s there. That’s the kind of professionalism you get when you hire someone like Malkovich, so I’m glad Marvel finally decided to give him his bag.