Many people were surprised when Kick-ass’ Matthew Vaughn, a man known for prizing his independence, signed on to direct Fox’s big budget, franchise X-Men: First Class flick. Only a few weeks before Vaughn had been talking about how he liked to get his financing indepedently, so he didn’t have major studio intereference, and then suddenly he was jumping right into one of the biggest studio vehicles around. Not only that, but he was going into the type of film he’d only just been ribbing in Kick-ass.
However now he’s revealed to the LA Times why he took the job, and it seems to be because he feels superhero movies will be dead soon, so this will be his only chance to jump in and make a big budget one, based on a set of major characters. He says, “I think weve kind of crossed the Rubicon with superhero films. Its been mined to death and in some cases the quality control is not what its supposed to be. People are just going to get bored of it. I think [the opportunity to do one], its only going to be there two or three more times. Then, the genre is going to be dead for a while because the audience has just been pummeled too much. It is a crowded room. Its too crowded.”
He’s certainly not the first to suggest we’re only a couple of years away from superheroes movies going on a downswing for a decade or so, and with so many in the pipeline, audience fatigue is a definite possibility. However that’s only really going to be a problem if they run out of new and interesting ideas, so hopefully Vaughn can think of something with First Class that’ll keep the genre going for a bit longer.