5 Signs The Superhero Movie Bubble Is About To Burst
5 Reasons It's About To Burst...
5. The Actors Are Ready to Move On
Recruiting talented stars for blockbuster comic-book movies was once a very tough task. Not long ago established stars and dramatic actors wouldnt touch superhero films with a ten-foot pole. There was a strong stigma that the genre was for money grabbing, relatively untalented action stars. So for much of the 2000s studios struggled to fill their casts. So producers began to rely, on young talent (Christian Bale), damaged goods (Robert Downey Jr.), the underrated (Alfred Molina, Stellan Skarsgard) and former big names who had fallen out of favour (Sam Jackson, Michael Caine). Then the superhero machine turned them into franchise cornerstones and worldwide stars. But now they want to move on. A combination of studio stinginess, contract disputes, absurdly long multi-movie deals, a crushing press schedule, tons of green-screen work, and the threat of typecasting has left a bad taste in many of the actors mouths. Both Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. have expressed their desire to leave Marvel behind. Christian Bale turned down the lead role in the new Batman films. On some level this was always unavoidable. These roles a perfect for young up-and-coming actors because they pay well and are an easy way to build fame and popularity. But after those goals have been achieved many actors want to move on to more serious projects. All of those roles will doubtlessly be filled, and the studios have what it takes to turn them into stars, but this is a big problem thats not going away. There has yet to be a franchise that has transitioned seamlessly between stars, most weathering flops or relying on reboots. So studios have to be worrying, will audiences still surge to watch these movies when their favourite stars are no longer in them?
