Tim Blake Nelson greeted the Marvel Cinematic Universe to “keep cinema alive”.
The 60-year-old actor will make his return as Samuel Sterns in the upcoming film Captain America: Brave New World and hit back at critics like Martin Scorsese – who labeled superhero blockbusters as “theme parks” and “not cinema.”
Speaking to TheWrap at San Diego Comic-Con, Nelson said: “Wonder became an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of cinema.”
“These dozens of films with characters coming in and out of each other’s stories, coming together, coming apart, fighting each other in a single universe; that’s never happened before in film… When people attack these films as, ‘Well, that’s not real cinema’ or, ‘It’s the death of cinema,’ I actually think it’s keeping cinema alive, and I really mean that.”
FIND OUT MORE: Every Marvel Movie Ranked From Worst to Best
The upcoming film marks Nelson’s first appearance in the MCU since he appeared in 2008. The incredible Hulk and he confessed that he had “given up” on returning to superhero movies.
O Minority Report star said: “I have to say I had given up on coming back too, and not without a tremendous amount of despair. But I’m glad it took this long because the character I (play) actually, I think, demands my own life experiences over the last 18 years. Because there’s a real depth and anger and pathos to this guy, and it took me another 18 years of life experience to try to do that.”
Nelson added that he reprised the role on the assumption that his alter ego would transform into the villain Leader.
He said Weekly entertainment: “I had only one request, which was that we realize the character practically, and they were willing to do that.
“Of course, if they had said no, I still would have done it. But I wanted to really have the look and the weight of the character and look in the mirror and see the deformation of the character and have the other actors experience that.”
Captain America: Brave New World is scheduled to open in theaters on February 14, 2025.
The Worst Moments of the X-Men Movie
The Fox X-Men The franchise spanned two decades and gave us 13 films, plus these ten moments we’d rather forget.