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Credit: NetflixSuperhero movies some 30 years ago can be credited with paving the way for what these huge comic franchises would become. A Warner Bros. executive has made a massive claim regarding who is directly responsible for the MCU. This executive claims Tim Burton had this “big idea,” which became the basis for all MCU movies.
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Everyone would argue that the MCU was created by the genius of Kevin Feige and how he was the first to develop this universe by allowing Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to utter the words, “I am Iron Man.” That line was the catalyst that kicked everything off and the post-credit scene that turned Marvel into a cinematic staple.
Though that is technically true, the MCU was kicked off before that. Edward Norton starred as The Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (2008), which was around the same time as Iron Man (2008). That’s not to say that both films knew of each other existence and played off that, but that Marvel film is also still considered to be one of the entries that also kicked off the MCU.
Even the Spider-Man trilogy that Sam Raimi directed is considered to be what began the superhero genre on its dominating cinematic run. These are all viable movies to be considered as the reason the MCU began, but that is not what began the MCU at all.
What began the MCU was not a movie but a man. Tim Burton was the man whose idea should be credited with Marvel’s success.
Warner Bros. Producer Says Tim Burton Had a “Big Idea” That Created the MCU
Michael Uslan is a current Warner Bros. executive producer who worked his way up in the media company after starting as a producer and DC Comics writer. Uslan was being interviewed on Traversing the Stars when he revealed that Tim Burton and his “big idea” when making Batman led to the creation of the MCU. According to Uslan, ”
“And let me just add one thing because, this is really important. It was Tim Burton who came up with what I always refer to as ‘the big idea. This is the game changer. This is the big idea that not only made Batman a success, but open the door to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He said to me, ‘Michael, if we’re going to do the first ever dark and serious comic book superhero movie this movie cannot be about Batman.’ Okay. That was my the most apoplectic moment of my entire existence. And then he explained. He said, ’This movie must be about Bruce Wayne.”
Uslan believes that Burton turning the tables on superheroes by making the story about the person in the costume instead of the superhero persona helped to create how all companies approached heroes later on, especially the MCU.
Going back to the creation of the MCU and Iron Man, this is certainly what Marvel did when approaching Tony Stark. Instead of the story being about the superhero, we were treated to a far more complicated man who felt it necessary to embody a far less selfless hero than his own self.
Through that series, we saw how Tony Stark also lost himself by relying too much on his suit of armor, adding an even deeper layer of his complicated personal life and how he was viewed as a world-saving superhero. The same can be said for Tim Burton and his creation of Michael Keaton’s Batman.
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That Batman has been altered more recently, but it was the core idea of how caring Keaton’s Batman was that would be one of the character’s more endearing qualities. Though we are unsure if we agree that Burton was the core reason that all superheroes were given this same level of characterization, we have to agree that his Batman was certainly one of a kind.
Do you think Tim Burton created the MCU? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!