It seems Meryl Streep isn’t exactly sold on the charm of Marvel films. The actor appeared to take a subtle swipe at the blockbuster genre, hinting that its dependence on neatly defined heroes and villains leaves little room for complexity, making the storytelling feel boring.
Meryl Streep takes a dig at Marvel
The actor appeared to take a dig at Marvel films while promoting The Devil Wears Prada 2 in a Hits Radio interview. The 76-year-old Oscar winner mentioned that the superhero genre has flattened characters.
Meryl was interviewed alongside co-stars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt when she was asked about viewers seeing a softer side of her portrayal of Miranda Priestly.
To this, she responded, “I feel like you get a realistic view. I think we tend to Marvel-ize the movies now. We got the villains, and we got the good guys, and it's so boring.”
The actor added: 'What's really interesting about life is that some of the heroes are flawed and some of the villains are human and interesting and have their own strengths. So that's what I like about this (movie). It's messier.'
{{/usCountry}}The actor added: 'What's really interesting about life is that some of the heroes are flawed and some of the villains are human and interesting and have their own strengths. So that's what I like about this (movie). It's messier.'
{{/usCountry}}Marvel is known for its box office franchises such as Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, and Hulk, among many others.
Meryl isn’t the first to take a swipe at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Earlier, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino had also stirred debate by taking aim at Marvel actors. As per Variety, during a recent interview on 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Tarantino attributed the loss of movie stars to the "Marvel-ization of Hollywood." He said, “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is...you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they're not movie stars. Right?"
In an earlier interview, Jennifer Aniston said that "big Marvel movies" are "diminishing" the quality of movies. In an interview with Variety, she said, “It wasn’t until the last couple of years when these streaming services were just sort of exploding with this amount of quality that I actually started to think, 'Wow, that’s better than what I just did.' And then you’re seeing what’s available out there and it’s just diminishing and diminishing in terms of, its big Marvel movies."
Meryl Streep back on big screen
Meanwhile, Meryl is back on the big screen with The Devil Wears Prada 2. The actor has reprised her role as Miranda Priestly in the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, which returns to the world of high fashion two decades after the original film. The first part was released in 2006.
The first film revolved around Andy Sachs, a smart but fashion-clueless journalism graduate who moves to New York City with dreams of becoming a serious writer. Desperate for work, she lands a job as a junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, the cold and tyrannical editor-in-chief of the elite fashion magazine Runway. The sequel follows Meryl Streep’s character, Miranda Priestly, navigating the decline of traditional print media, and how she is forced to face off against her former assistant, Emily Charlton. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is directed by David Frankel and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. It was released on May 1.