Seth Rogen Explains His Hesitance to Make a Marvel Movie: ‘It’s a Fear of the Process, Honestly’

Christian Zilko
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe has convinced countless Hollywood A-listers to participate in its sprawling superhero saga over the past 15 years. But don’t expect Seth Rogen to join the stable any time soon.

In a new interview with Polygon, Rogen explained that he is hesitant to work on a massive franchise due to fears about compromising the writing process he has developed with longtime partner Evan Goldberg.

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“Honestly, probably fear,” Rogen said when asked about what has stopped him from making a Marvel or DC movie. “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.”

While Rogen and Goldberg have written and produced a variety of comic book properties including “The Boys” and “Preacher,” they have always controlled their projects as producers. (Rogen also starred in the critically-panned 2011 film “The Green Hornet,” which he co-wrote with Goldberg). That allows them to control their writing process — a privilege that Rogen says they’re unwilling to give up.

“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,” he said. “But is it a system that we would ultimately get really frustrated with?”

He cited their upcoming animated film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” as a positive example of their process in action. Despite the film being based on a massive piece of preexisting IP, Rogen says that he and Goldberg were able to develop the project at their own pace.

“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. We are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process. We’re control freaks!”

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