Kumail Nanjiani Thinks It’s ‘So Strange’ That Some People Get Upset That Martin Scorsese Doesn’t Like Comic Book Movies

It’s been over three long, long years since Martin Scorsese dared trash superhero movies. He made those comments so long ago the pandemic hadn’t even started. People still get pissy about it, and to some the director of some of the finest pictures ever made — and cheerleader for films from all over history and all over the world — is forever seen as a villain of the MCU. Not everyone involved with the genre is mad at him, though. Kumail Nanjiani, who got jacked for 2021’s Eternals, recently offered a perfectly diplomatic response.

In a recent profile by Esquire (in a bit caught by Variety), the Welcome to Chippendales star was perhaps inevitably asked what he thought about some of the great directors who’ve come for the genre in which he’s so far made one (1) film — not just the guy who made The Age of Innocence but also the guy who made Jackie Brown.

“I obviously love the movies Tarantino makes or Scorsese makes, and I may disagree with Scorsese’s opinion on superhero movies, but I mean, who else has earned the right to have an opinion” Nanjiani replied. “If Scorsese hasn’t earned the right to have an opinion on movies, then none of us should have an opinion on movies.”

He added, “It’s so strange that people get upset about it.”

At one point he even echoed one of Scorsese’s main beefs with Marvel and ilk: that they’ve helped homogenize the multiplex, killing viewers’ demand for smaller movies. Bemoaning the death of “grown-up movies that have a decent budget, decent movie stars in the theatres,” he waxed bittersweet over 2017, when his autobiographical indie drama-comedy The Big Sick was able to elevate his profile.

“I think our year was the last year where those indie movies found commercial success,” Nanjiani mourned. “’There’s a sense that people, unless it’s action or horror, don’t want to go to the theatres to see it.”