Once upon a time, characters from different movies hanging out and teaming up seemed like a pretty neat idea. And while it still can be, over the years, the prospect has gradually lost its shine.
Sometimes there’s too many folks to keep track of, or what they’re doing doesn’t really work, and the entire thing just begins to feel like homework. And if you’re tired of watching them, imagine how exhausting it must be on the creative side of the equation.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Logan and Indiana Jones 5 director James Mangold revealed his outlook on cinematic universes: “I don’t do [multi-movie universe building],” he said decisively. His upcoming flick is the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and he made it clear he’s got no interest in trying to pull an MCU with dead rock stars. “It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment because …I think it’s the enemy, the death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.”
Mangold went on to explain his storytelling aim has always been, “‘What is unique about this film, and these characters?’ It’s not about making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level.”
Read between the lines, and you can probably guess that Mangold’s feeling some type of way about wrapping up the story of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with Logan, only for Marvel to then bring Jackman back for this weekend’s Deadpool & Wolverine. The actor may be playing a different version of the character, but it’s understandable that Mangold feels a little put out—if you keep doing callbacks and multiverse stories, at a certain point, you do run into a wall that makes things hard to get out of.
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