Anthony Mackie Speaks on Marvel's Creative Restriction and Lack of Stoytelling Freedom
“There’s only so much creativity you can bring to the table.”
Anthony Mackie is gearing up for the release of Marvel‘s upcoming film, Captain America: Brave New World which is set to release in 2025. Ahead of this, Mackie has been making the press rounds to promote his latest series, Twisted Metal. The actor’s superhero character receives a comedic break before the Marvel madness, though it does not stop fans from wondering what to expect next from the new Captain America.
In a recent interview with Radio Times, Mackie compared the making of Twisted Metal to working within the MCU. He shares, “I would say the Marvel thing is completely different, just because it’s such a space of controlled entertainment. Like, there’s only so much you can do.” He compares, “There’s only so much creativity you can bring to the table, because Stan Lee gave us so much content. Whereas with this [Twisted Metal], it was like, ‘There’s a guy and a girl…go!’ So we were really able to build the world around it.” With a project like Twisted Metal, Mackie agreed that the script gave freedom to introduce or perhaps even kill off a new character but in the world of Marvel, there is less spontaneity since the stories are already written.
Mackie continues to state, “That’s the hard thing about the Marvel universe. It’s like, you can’t really go outside of the lines of those comic books. You know, when we introduced the Falcon, and the growth of the Falcon to Captain America, all of that had to coincide with what Stan had already gave us. So it’s n interesting juggle to be a part of that world. And this was more like, ‘Let’s just have fun and figure it out as we go.’” Captain America: Brave New World will include Harrison Ford as he makes his Marvel debut as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross alongside Liv Tyler and Tim Blake Nelson. It is slated to open in theaters on February 14, 2025.
