{"id":2040158,"date":"2026-07-12T20:15:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2040158"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:15:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:15:49","slug":"iman-vellani-wants-superhero-movies-to-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2040158","title":{"rendered":"Iman Vellani Wants Superhero Movies to Step Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kamala-khan-marvels-hed-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u00a0<\/em>is out in two weeks, and its release carries some more weight than usual. It doesn\u2019t just have to restart Spider-Man, it\u2019s also got to make a ton of money and prove superhero movies aren\u2019t dead after all.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Supergirl\u00a0<\/em>underperformed, an anonymous studio head had this to say to the Hollywood Reporter: \u201cGen Z doesn\u2019t care about superheroes. That genre belongs to millennials.\u201d It\u2019s a claim that\u2019s not entirely wrong; look at how that demographic\u2019s spent the year flocking to indie works like Backrooms\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Amazing Digital Circus<\/em>. In general, the 2020s largely haven\u2019t 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\u2019t entirely able to clear on screen.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s thesis, she disputed the general idea that her generation doesn\u2019t care about superhero movies. \u201cWesterns, musicals, and romcoms went through this. Every genre goes through cycles,\u201d she noted. \u201cOur 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\u2019re looking for stories that feel specific and emotional\u2014especially in the age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vellani\u2019s advice? Studios need to make superhero movies that \u201cevolve and grow alongside their audience. I think Gen Z responds incredibly well to superheroes when they\u2019re treated as people first. We want honesty from our storytellers. We want our intelligence respected. The answer isn\u2019t to abandon the genre, but to find new stories that can only be told through\u00a0this\u00a0<\/em>genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Vellani\u2019s 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,<\/em>\u00a0Thunderbolts,\u00a0<\/em>and even her own\u00a0Ms. Marvel<\/em> felt like breaths of fresh air for their subject matter and approach to what superhero stories are. We\u2019ve still got Brand New Day <\/em>and\u00a0December\u2019s Avengers: Doomsday <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u00a0<\/em>is out in two weeks, and its release carries some more weight than usual. It doesn\u2019t just have to restart Spider-Man, it\u2019s also got to make a ton of money and prove superhero movies aren\u2019t dead after all.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Supergirl\u00a0<\/em>underperformed, an anonymous studio head had this to say to the Hollywood Reporter: \u201cGen Z doesn\u2019t care about superheroes. That genre belongs to millennials.\u201d It\u2019s a claim that\u2019s not entirely wrong; look at how that demographic\u2019s spent the year flocking to indie works like Backrooms\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Amazing Digital Circus<\/em>. In general, the 2020s largely haven\u2019t 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\u2019t entirely able to clear on screen.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s thesis, she disputed the general idea that her generation doesn\u2019t care about superhero movies. \u201cWesterns, musicals, and romcoms went through this. Every genre goes through cycles,\u201d she noted. \u201cOur 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\u2019re looking for stories that feel specific and emotional\u2014especially in the age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vellani\u2019s advice? Studios need to make superhero movies that \u201cevolve and grow alongside their audience. I think Gen Z responds incredibly well to superheroes when they\u2019re treated as people first. We want honesty from our storytellers. We want our intelligence respected. The answer isn\u2019t to abandon the genre, but to find new stories that can only be told through\u00a0this\u00a0<\/em>genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Vellani\u2019s 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,<\/em>\u00a0Thunderbolts,\u00a0<\/em>and even her own\u00a0Ms. Marvel<\/em> felt like breaths of fresh air for their subject matter and approach to what superhero stories are. We\u2019ve still got Brand New Day <\/em>and\u00a0December\u2019s Avengers: Doomsday <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kamala-khan-marvels-hed-1200×675.jpg”] Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u00a0is out in two weeks, and its release carries some more weight than usual. It doesn\u2019t just have to restart Spider-Man, it\u2019s also got to make a ton of money and prove superhero movies aren\u2019t dead after all. When\u00a0Supergirl\u00a0underperformed, an anonymous studio head had this to say to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2040158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2040158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2040158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2040158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2040158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}