Roland Emmerich: Marvel Movies and Star Wars Are Ruining Our Industry a Little Bit

August 2024 · 5 minute read

Roland Emmerich, the blockbuster filmmaker behind “Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and the upcoming “Moonfall,” credited “Star Wars” and superhero movies pumped out by Marvel and DC as “ruining” the film industry. Emmerich’s “Moonfall,” backed by Lionsgate and made on a reported budget in the $140 million range, is the increasingly-rare example of an original Hollywood tentpole.

“Oh yes,” Emmerich told Den of Geek when asked if the disaster genre has changed in recent years. “Because naturally, Marvel and DC Comics and Star Wars have pretty much taken over. It’s ruining our industry a little bit, because nobody does anything original anymore.”

Emmerich later added, “You should make bold new movies, you know? And I think, actually, Christopher Nolan is the master of that. He is someone who can make movies about whatever he wants. I have it a little bit harder, but I still have a big enough name — especially when it’s a disaster [movie] or has some sort of disaster theme.”

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While Emmerich dabbled in franchises with his 2016 sequel “Independence Day: Resurgence,” he later went on record saying he regretted making the critical and commercial flop. The director noted that losing original “Independence Day” star Will Smith to “Suicide Squad” made “Resurgence” just another run-of-the-mill, unoriginal Hollywood sequel.

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“I should have stopped making the movie because we had a much better script, then I had to, really fast, cobble another script together,” Emmerich told Yahoo. “I should have just said no because all of a sudden I was making something I criticized myself: a sequel.”

Emmerich has no intention these days of joining the Marvel or “Star Wars” franchises, and he credits his aversion to these franchises to growing up in Germany. The filmmaker said, “There were [‘The Adventures of Tintin’ comics], but they were very childish and there were no superheroes. So that’s why at the very beginning, superheroes didn’t work in Germany. They needed 10 or 15 years [of movies] to get to the same level as the rest of the world… But I just have never found any interest in that kind of movie.”

Back in November 2019, Emmerich told Insider that his “eyes glaze over” whenever he is watching Marvel movies. “I watch them on the plane so I can fall asleep,” he added.

Emmerich fans should also not expect the director to make a disaster movie tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. The filmmaker told Variety’s Marc Malkin earlier this week that he does not want to make movies about “people being sick,” adding, “It’s a very depressing thing. They did ‘Contagion’ and that was a cool movie, but not really one of my favorites.”

“Moonfall” opens in theaters nationwide Feb. 4.

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