If there’s one topic you will hear regularly brought up for debate in fandom circles, it’s that of ‘superhero fatigue’.
Plenty of column inches and online wars have begun over the very notion – namely that people have grown tired of superhero movies with their repetitive formulas.
DC Studios chief James Gunn previously told Rolling Stone that the concept is real but is less to do with tiredness over the characters or superhero genre itself and more about spectacle filmmaking which can become “just a bunch of nonsense on-screen” and “the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story” regardless of “whether they’re superhero movies or not”.
Now, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” producer Chris Miller has weighed in on the topic with Rolling Stone and says he’s dismissive of the concept of superhero fatigue altogether when asked how this particular franchise avoids the issue:
“I don’t believe it’s superhero fatigue, I believe it’s ‘a movie that feels like a movie I’ve seen a dozen times before’ fatigue. If you’re using the same story structure and the same style and the same tone and the same vibe as movies and shows that have come before, it doesn’t matter what genre it is. It’s going to be boring to people.”
His fellow producer Phil Lord adds that moviegoers can’t be “sustained on Easter eggs and reveals” or “big, crazy multiverse stakes” as they only care about more important elements.
Lord then cited Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise and the relationship between Rocket Raccoon and Groot as one such element. In fact, he says the quieter scenes with Miles and his family are as, if not more, important than the large-scale action scenes:
“This story is just so rooted in parents and kids, and Miles [Morales] and his family. With the last movie, we showed it to some friends early on, and they were like, ‘You have to get to like all these multiple Spider-People as quickly as possible. That’s the exciting thing.’
And we were like, we don’t think so. Because the thing that everybody seems to enjoy is the quieter scenes with Miles and his mom and dad. They can’t get enough of it. And I’m so glad we stayed true to what the audience was telling us.”
Miller recently took to Twitter to dissuade Spider-Verse fans from putting down other films whilst sharing their outpouring of positive feelings for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which is in cinemas now.
