Marvel Director Jabs At Martin Scorsese On Social Media
The feud between Marvel and Martin Scorsese picked back up over the last few days when Joe Russo took a jab at the legendary director through social media. Through a back and forth on TikTok and Instagram, Russo poked fun at Scorsese’s dog’s name, Oscar, joking that his dog’s name is “Box Office.” Though it seemed to be a bit of harmless fun, the exchange referenced some hurtful words that Scorsese made about the MCU a few years ago, with some upset by the way Joe Russo chose to respond.
For those who may not remember the beef between Marvel and Martin Scorsese, it all started in 2019 when the Taxi Driver director was speaking with Empire. During his interview, which was part of a promotional tour for The Irishman, Scorsese said that while he “tried” to get on board the MCU bullet train, he simply couldn’t, adding, “That’s not cinema.”
Referring to what the comic-book-turned-film-franchise does on the big screen as a “theme park,” Scorsese slammed the multitude of money-making films for their lack of emotion and the human experience.
Further stoking the flame with Marvel Studios, Martin Scorsese would go on to work with The New York Times on an op-ed piece that once again took a swing at the productions within the MCU. Putting down those who not only make the films but also the fans who go to see them, Scorsese said that there is no “revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger” in the superhero flicks, therefore making them less than when it comes to the cinematic experience. Instead, he wrote, Marvel’s content is simply “made to satisfy a specific set of demands.”
Taking all of this into consideration, it shouldn’t come as a huge shock that Joe Russo, whose name is tied to a handful of Marvel productions including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, saw a chance to poke back and took it. However, the power and pull of Martin Scorsese is strong, and peers in the business have taken it upon themselves to come to his corner.
One of those professionals slamming Marvel’s Joe Russo and coming to the aid of Martin Scorsese is Toonami co-founder and Warner Bros. Discovery’s SVP of action and anime series Jason DeMarco. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), DeMarco slammed Russo’s action-packed film, The Grey Man, writing that Russo “took hundreds of millions from Netflix” to make the lackluster film.
Praising the work that Scorsese has done, referring to titles including The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, DeMarco said that he was sure the filmmaker’s legacy would live on with people still bound to be talking about them decades from now.
Joe Russo’s knock at Martin Scorsese also comes at a time when the director is seeing surprisingly low numbers at the box office with the release of his latest star-studded feature, Killers of the Flower Moon. Clocking in at over three hours in length (beating out Marvel’s Endgame by almost 30 minutes), the Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons-led crime drama is based on a real set of murders in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
Unfortunately, with other films including Five Nights at Freddy’s also landing in theaters this month, Scorsese’s latest production hasn’t been getting the box office numbers it was expected to see.
Whether you’re a Marvel fan on the side of Joe Russo or if you tend to sway toward the filmmaking style of Martin Scorsese, the feud between the pair is still a bit of free entertainment.
