Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in two weeks, and its release carries some more weight than usual. It doesn’t just have to restart Spider-Man, it’s also got to make a ton of money and prove superhero movies aren’t dead after all.
When Supergirl underperformed, an anonymous studio head had this to say to the Hollywood Reporter: “Gen Z doesn’t care about superheroes. That genre belongs to millennials.” It’s a claim that’s not entirely wrong; look at how that demographic’s spent the year flocking to indie works like Backrooms and The Amazing Digital Circus. In general, the 2020s largely haven’t been kind to supers critically or financially, but a survey from this past February revealed 10 to 24-year-olds have a greater interest in guys who can actually feel things, a bar many superheroes aren’t entirely able to clear on screen.
But how true is that really? Iman Vellani, best known for playing Ms. Marvel in the MCU, recently did an AMA for League of Comic Geeks. Asked about the studio head’s thesis, she disputed the general idea that her generation doesn’t care about superhero movies. “Westerns, musicals, and romcoms went through this. Every genre goes through cycles,” she noted. “Our generation grew up with an abundance of superhero stories, so perhaps the novelty has worn off, which is natural. The bar is higher now, and we’re looking for stories that feel specific and emotional—especially in the age of AI.”
Vellani’s advice? Studios need to make superhero movies that “evolve and grow alongside their audience. I think Gen Z responds incredibly well to superheroes when they’re treated as people first. We want honesty from our storytellers. We want our intelligence respected. The answer isn’t to abandon the genre, but to find new stories that can only be told through this genre.”
To Vellani’s point, the superhero fatigue folks often talk about may be more proof that specific, older franchises are fading than a particular genre as a whole. Audiences of varying demographics have dug recent cape works for trying to do something different: Invincible, Thunderbolts, and even her own Ms. Marvel felt like breaths of fresh air for their subject matter and approach to what superhero stories are. We’ve still got Brand New Day and December’s Avengers: Doomsday to help determine where superheroes are culturally at, and those will probably rake in some cash. But to truly determine whether anyone high-up is thinking like Vellani is, we may have to wait for the superhero movies dropping throughout 2027 and 2028.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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