Chris Hemsworth finds Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino Marvel critiques ‘super depressing’

Even superheroes get the blues.

Speaking to British GQ for a new interview to promote “Extraction 2,” Thor star Chris Hemsworth said he found critical remarks about the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Oscar-winning filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino “super depressing.” 

“There goes two of my heroes I won’t work with. I guess they’re not a fan of me,” Hemsworth said.

Scorsese and Marvel have been at odds for literal years at this point, due to Scorsese’s opinion that the blockbuster series of comic book films didn’t necessarily qualify as cinema. “I said that I’ve tried to watch a few of them and that they’re not for me, that they seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are to movies as I’ve known and loved them throughout my life, and that in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema,” Scorsese wrote in a New York Times piece published in 2019 to help explain his take on the successful franchise. 

“Some people seem to have seized on the last part of my answer as insulting, or as evidence of hatred for Marvel on my part. If anyone is intent on characterizing my words in that light, there’s nothing I can do to stand in the way,” he wrote. “Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry. You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don’t interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament. I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself. But I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies — of what they were and what they could be — that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri.”

The nuanced point Scorsese tried to make was more about options for ticket buyers than anything else.

“So, you might ask, what’s my problem? Why not just let superhero films and other franchise films be?” he wrote. “The reason is simple. In many places around this country and around the world, franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen. It’s a perilous time in film exhibition, and there are fewer independent theaters than ever. The equation has flipped and streaming has become the primary delivery system. Still, I don’t know a single filmmaker who doesn’t want to design films for the big screen, to be projected before audiences in theaters.”

Tarantino’s comment about Marvel came more recently. On a podcast, he suggested Marvel’s stars were the characters themselves – Thor, Iron Man, Captain America – and not the performers.

“Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” Tarantino said. “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times…but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”

Speaking to GQ, Hemsworth said he was happy the Marvel films became the communal experience at theaters during the last decade. “I’m thankful that I have been a part of something that kept people in cinemas. Now, whether or not those films were to the detriment of other films, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t love when we start scrutinizing each other when there’s so much fragility in the business and in this space of the arts as it is.”

But lest anyone think Hemsworth holds a grudge against Tarantino or Scorsese, he does not. “I say that less to the directors who made those comments, who are all, by the way, still my heroes, and in a heartbeat I would leap to work with any of them. But I say it more to the broader opinion around that topic,” he added.

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