Nicolas Cage Gives The World’s Best Response To Being Asked About Joining Marvel
Nicolas Cage says he doesn't need to join Marvel simply because he's Nic Cage.
Hollywood veteran Nicolas Cage is one of the few actors who are not interested in scoring a Marvel movie role. When accepting the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Miami Film Festival, the 59-year-old Dracula actor reiterated the sentiment saying, “I don’t need to be in the MCU. I’m Nic Cage.” However, he was not negative about the superhero genre either.
Addressing concerns raised by some directors, Nicolas Cage said he does understand the frustration with Marvel dominating the industry. “I get it. But there’s plenty of room for everybody,” he said via Variety. He went on to reference the success of Tár and other artistic, independently-driven movies.
Born Nicolas Kim Coppola, Cage also touched on the Marvel connection to his stage name. “I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage,” he told reporters. “What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me,” the actor continued when asked to share more of his thoughts about the genre.
While Nicolas Cage may not want a role in a contemporary Marvel movie, he brought Johnny Blaze to life in 2007’s Ghost Rider. The character was dark and brooding, contrasting the more upbeat Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man movies released at the time. The film was a resounding success, and a sequel called Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, was released a few years later.
Nicolas Cage also discussed his connection to DC projects, specifically the ill-fated Superman Lives movie by director Tim Burton. “It was more of a 1980s Superman with the samurai’s long black hair,” the actor explained. “I thought it was going to be a really different, sort of emo Superman. But we never got there,” he added.
Although the film was scrapped with little explanation, the Renfield star went on to voice Superman in the animated feature Teen Titans Go! to the Movies. As a comic book fan, Nicolas Cage has always spoken kindly of Marvel.
The latest comments from Nicolas Cage come as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded with various series on Disney+. The trend specifically irked Martin Scorsese, who recently said that superhero films were not real cinema. Likening them to theme parks, the director penned an open letter in The New York Times detailing how they don’t interest him.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage is set to star in a non-Marvel movie called Renfield. Billed as a comedy horror, the film is directed by Chris McKay from a screenplay by Ryan Ridley. Featuring characters from Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula novel, the story follows Count Dracula’s assistant who finds a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans.
Along with Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula, the movie stars Nicholas Hoult as the titular character. Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, and Adrian Martinez also appear in supporting roles.
