Jamie Lee Curtis was one of many Comic-Con attendees this year to participate in a game of rapid fire questions with MTV. When the interviewer asked which phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’re currently in, Curtis answered: “Bad” (via EW). The answer prompted her and her “Borderlands” cast members in attendance to laugh together.
“Speak No Evil” star Mackenzie Davis’ answer was “death,” although she admitted to not understanding what a Marvel “phase” even is after answering. Davis’ co-star James McAvoy, who was never in the MCU but did play Charles Xavier in several “X-Men” movies, responded: “Hey, Marvel, she just terminated you.”
While Curtis was being cheeky, she also wasn’t necessarily incorrect. While Marvel is currently dominating the box office charts with the record-breaking success of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which is sure to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office next month, the film’s success follows the worst year in the studio’s history. Marvel suffered two box office flops in 2023, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels,” the latter title becoming the MCU’s lowest-grossing movie in history.
Throughout 2022, Curtis kick-started a playful war with Marvel after her acclaimed A24 multiverse drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once” opened in theaters at the same time as the MCU’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” The actor went wild on social media at the time proclaiming her movie the superior multiverse project.
“I have nothing against Marvel as an entity. I’ve seen a lot of Marvel movies,” Curtis later clarified to People magazine when asked about the pretend feud. “What I was talking about is that ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ was a little movie that could … and [we] were able to tell a multiverse story that really touched people. What I was trying to talk about was it doesn’t have to be a Marvel movie in order to be a spectacle and to really move you.”
Granted, Curtis did admit to possibly wanting to stir up “a little friendly competition” between the two multiverse movies. Would the actor ever join the Marvel Cinematic Universe? She wouldn’t be against it, although she said it’s doubtful she would be approached.
“Honestly, I can’t imagine that they will ever come calling because I kicked up some dust,” Curtis said. “But I’m a collaborating artist. I work with a lot of people on a lot of different things, and if the role was interesting and if I could bring what I do to it, of course I would [work with Marvel]. What am I going to do, say no? Of course!”
“But, I would find it hard to imagine that Marvel’s going to figure out something to do with a 64-year-old woman,” she added. “I’m afraid if I do a Marvel movie, they’re going to stick dots all over me and make me act by myself in a warehouse somewhere.”
Next up for Curtis is “Borderlands,” in theaters Aug. 9.
