Seth Rogen Refuses Marvel Role, Afraid of Studio

in Marvel

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Credit: Lionsgate

Seth Rogen is one of the biggest names in comedy, but it turns out that he won’t work with Marvel Studios because he’s too afraid of the giant comic book film studio.

seth rogen lion king
Credit: NBC News

That is a bit funny to think about, considering Seth Rogen is an incredibly well-known and influential writer, producer, and director and has been a beloved performer since he was literally a teenager. However, it seems that, at least in part, the Lion King (2019) star is intimidated by the idea of teaming up with the world’s most reliable source of mega-blockbusters (up until recently, at least).

In a recent interview with Polygon, Seth Rogen revealed his reason for not having worked in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up until now: “Honestly, probably fear.”

Related: Seth Rogen Hits Back at Haters Following ‘Ninja Turtles’ Trailer

That is pretty refreshing candor for the producer of the upcoming animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Seth Rogen continued by saying, “We really have a pretty specific way we work; me and Evan [Goldberg] have been writers for 20 years at this point. It’s a fear of the process, honestly. And I say that knowing nothing about the process. There are a lot of Marvel things I love.”

Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen have indeed been working together for most of their careers, co-writing Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), The Green Hornet (2011), and This Is the End (2013) and working together on numerous other projects.

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The Green Hornet
Credit: Sony Pictures

Rogen also went on to reveal that his own need for control over a project probably also has something to do with it, saying, “It’s mostly a fear of how would we plug into the system they have in place, which seems like a very good system, and a system that serves them very well. But is it a system that we would ultimately get really frustrated with? And what’s nice about [Mutant Mayhem] is that we’re the producers of this. So we dictated the system, and we dictated the process in a lot of ways. And that’s what’s also appealing for us about The Boys and the other bigger franchise-y type things we’ve done, is that we are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process. We’re control freaks!”

New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem trailer TMNT
Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies (via YouTube)

Related: Seth Rogen Shares Surprising Details on His ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Reboot

It is worth noting that Marvel Studios has been known in the past for exerting strong primary control over projects, with President Kevin Feige long acknowledged as the primary creative voice of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over individual directors and stars.

In that, Seth Rogen probably has some hunches correct about how he would feel working in the MCU. He should probably stick with Amazon Prime Video, which is apparently a little less likely to interfere.

What Marvel project would you like to see Seth Rogen in? Let us know in the comments below!

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