Superhero comics, Marvel or DC or otherwise, are one of the most popular genres for movies and TV shows to adapt for new audiences. However, with their ubiquity comes a variety of opinions on which ones are better than the rest, and actor Seth Rogen isn't a fan of standard Marvel fare.
Only the other day was Amazon Studios' The Boys named the best-rated superhero show ever made according to Nielsen data. It outstripped series like Loki, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk for a total of 10.6 billion minutes watched last year, and part of its allure is the unflinchingly nihilistic portrayal of superheroes. They're powerful yet incredibly insecure, protected by a corporation providing them with a squeaky clean image, and embroil themselves in volatile political conflicts across the globe. That is why The Boys is for adults and Marvel shows are for kids, according to Rogen.
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Talking to Total Film, Rogen explained how he believes that there would be no The Boys without the foundation that Marvel movies created for the genre, allowing space for there to be these snarky, satirical takes on superheroes and villains.
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"I think that Kevin Feige is a brilliant guy, and I think a lot of the filmmakers he's hired to make these movies are great filmmakers. But as someone who doesn't have children… It is [all] kind of geared towards kids, you know?" he said. "There are times where I will forget. I'll watch one of these things, as an adult with no kids, and be like, 'Oh, this is just not for me.'"
As two of the producers of The Boys, what attracted him and his filmmaker friend Evan Goldberg to the project was that darker element dragging the standard comic book tropes through to a new lens. "We had the same experience that I think, now, audiences are having, which is: 'Oh, we've been reading Marvel for the last 15 years and now there's starting to be stuff like this,' which is a great addition to this landscape," he elaborated. "It's [the same genre] but not considering younger audiences in the slightest. If anything, it's much more geared towards adult audiences."
Topics: Marvel, TV And Film