Nicolas Cage says he doesn't need to be in the Marvel cinematic universe 'because he's Nic Cage'
Nicolas Cage has insisted he "doesn't need" to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The OCage, 59, was born Nicolas Kim Coppola — he's the nephew of The Godfather auteur Francis Ford Coppola — got his stage name from Marvel comic character, Luke Cage.
While Cage is no stranger to Marvel movies (2007's Ghost Rider and its 2011 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), he isn't in a rush to play in the MCU sandbox.
Speaking at the Miami Film Festival, where the Leaving Las Vegas actor received the Variety Legend & Groundbreaker Award, Cage said, "I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down?
"Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me. I understand what the frustration is. I get it. But I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.
"I’m seeing movies like Tar. I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody."
Asked if he wants to be part of the MCU, Cage said: "I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage."
Maybe a few years ago. In a GQ interview last year, Cage said he would love to be in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Responding to speculation he could reprise the role of Johnny Blaze and his alter-ego with the flaming skull Ghost Rider in the Benedict Cumberbatch-led Marvel movie, Cage said: "Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re casting me. I mean, I would do it.
"It would be fun. I’d love to work with Cumberbatch, but I don’t think that’s happening.”
In the same GQ feature, Coppola made it clear he doesn't agree with his uncle Francis or Martin Scorsese's take on Marvel movies.
Both the feted filmmakers have been very vocal in their criticism of the comic-book superhero genre.
"There used to be studio films," said Coppola said. "Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture?
"A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”
Cage, however, saw things differently.
"I think that the movies that I make, like Pig or Joe, are not in any kind of conflict with Marvel movies," he siad.
“I mean, I don’t think the Marvel movie had anything to do with the end of the tweener. By tweener, I mean the $30 to $50 million budget movie. I think movies are in good shape."
"If you look at Power of the Dog, or if you look at Spencer, or any of Megan Ellison’s movies. I think that there’s still Paul Thomas Anderson."
Cage's latest, Renfield, where he plays Dracula, with Nicholas Hoult as his long-suffering manservant, opens in cinemas on Apr 13.
