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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Child

Did Marvel really kill the movie star? Tell that to Harrison Ford

Star or character power? … (l to r) Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers (2012).
Star or character power? … (l to r) Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers (2012). Photograph: Reuters

Did Marvel really kill off the old-fashioned the movie star? And should anyone with hopes of becoming the new James Dean avoid starring as Captain America like a night out with Proxima Midnight?

This ongoing debate first entered the cultural ether around the time that Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were proclaiming loudly that all superhero movies were basically spawn of the corporate whore of Hollywood Babylon in 2019. The supposed problem was then crystallised intellectually by one Quentin Tarantino in 2022, who pointed out that most Marvel stars would be virtually unknown if they hadn’t got the superhero gig.

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