Paul Dano Says ‘Superhero Fatigue’ Can Help Fix The Genre
Paul Dano is the latest actor to comment on the decline of superhero films. The actor, who played Riddler in 2021’s The Batman, recently discussed “superhero fatigue” with The Independent.
The Matt Reeves-directed film brought it nearly $800 million worldwide. But in recent years, Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe films like Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Eternals, Black Adam, The Flash, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania flopped at the box office or were reviewed horribly for acting or bad CGI.
Dano told the publication that now, superhero film creators have to either breathe “new life” into comic book movies or simply shift into something else that isn’t superheroes. Still hopeful for the genre, the There Will Be Blood alum says there will “still be some good ones yet to come, but I think it’s kind of a welcome moment.”
The 39-year-old actor also believes that we now have a different landscape when it comes to how quickly movies or TV turn around. He said “quantity over quality” has become a “big misstep” for what content is presented to audiences and fellow artists.
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As we previously reported, Anthony Hopkins thinks being an actor in Marvel films is nothing short of “pointless,” despite having been in them. He said last June that the MCU ultimately “swallowed” Hollywood as a whole.
Elizabeth Olsen, who starred as Wanda Maximoff echoed Hopkins' statements a month earlier. She doesn’t want actors to get stuck within the MCU, advising actors against signing multiple-movie deals with Marvel.
“I don’t believe it’s super superhero fatigue, I believe it’s ‘a movie that feels like a movie I’ve seen a dozen times before’ fatigue,” said Spider-Verse producer and writer Phil Lord to Rolling Stone last year. James Gunn also told the publication that there is such a thing as “superhero fatigue,” and it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes. The DC head said it is all about the storytelling. When a film loses touch of that, it becomes “just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring.”
As for Dano’s future in the genre, it’s unclear at this time whether or not his Riddler will return for The Batman Part II. According to CBR, The main villain of the film has not been formally revealed yet. There are a handful of villains who could likely make an appearance, like Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin, Barry Keoghan as the Joker, and Dano’s Riddler, as he was put into Arkham Asylum at the end of the film.
The sequel is already set for release on October 3rd, 2025. Meanwhile, his latest role is in the Netflix sci-fi film, Spaceman, starring alongside Adam Sandler as a giant, alien emotional-support spider.
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