Seth Rogen Explains His Hesitance to Make a Marvel Movie: ‘It’s a Fear of the Process, Honestly’
Christian Zilko
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has convinced countless Hollywood A-listers to participate in its sprawling superhero saga over the past 15 years. But don’t expect Seth Rogen to join the stable any time soon.
In a new interview with Polygon, Rogen explained that he is hesitant to work on a massive franchise due to fears about compromising the writing process he has developed with longtime partner Evan Goldberg.
“Honestly, probably fear,” Rogen said when asked about what has stopped him from making a Marvel or DC movie. “We really have a pretty specific way we work; me and Evan [Goldberg] have been writers for 20 years at this point. It’s a fear of the process, honestly. And I say that knowing nothing about the process. There are a lot of Marvel things I love.”
While Rogen and Goldberg have written and produced a variety of comic book properties including “The Boys” and “Preacher,” they have always controlled their projects as producers. (Rogen also starred in the critically-panned 2011 film “The Green Hornet,” which he co-wrote with Goldberg). That allows them to control their writing process — a privilege that Rogen says they’re unwilling to give up.
“It’s mostly a fear of how would we plug into the system they have in place, which seems like a very good system, and a system that serves them very well,” he said. “But is it a system that we would ultimately get really frustrated with?”
He cited their upcoming animated film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” as a positive example of their process in action. Despite the film being based on a massive piece of preexisting IP, Rogen says that he and Goldberg were able to develop the project at their own pace.
“And what’s nice about [‘Mutant Mayhem’] is that we’re the producers of this. So we dictated the system, and we dictated the process in a lot of ways. We are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process. We’re control freaks!”
