It’s no secret that I have been a big marvel fan. Let’s face it, I’m a nerd at heart and have just never fully grown up.
If you follow the Marvel scene at all, you may have noticed that there is somewhat of a negative connotation in Hollywood when it comes to Marvel movies. The more artistic and poetic actors and directors have made negative comments about the type of movies that MArvel creates are not “true art” – that the team behind them is just trying to grab as much cash as they can and missing the true art of moviemaking.
One actor who has made comments in the past is Ethan Hawke. He’s an American actor, director, and novelist best known for his portrayals of cerebral sensitive men. He was never extremely cricitial of Marvel, but he did make a few comments in the past.
In 2022, he came out as the main antagonist in the Disney+ Marvel series, Moon Night. Recently, an article came out about what motivated Ethan to become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Turns out, it was a conversation with his daughter Maya, who you probably know as the character Robin from Stranger Things (friend of Steve Harrington), that changed his mind.
Here’s an excerpt from the article from comicbook.com
A large reason as to why Hawke joined the MCU comes courtesy of his daughter, the breakout star of Netflix’s Stranger Things. According to Ethan, his daughter was the person to convince him to join the Marvel world and make it his own.
“Maya would say to me, ‘Why are you sitting on the outside and telling everyone their sandbox is bad? Why don’t you go into their sandbox, play with them, and show them what you have to offer?'” the actor said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “I said to Oscar Isaac, ‘We’ve got to go play in Marvel’s sandbox and try to do what we do. We don’t have to change Marvel. We just want to show them what we’re capable of doing and see if they find it interesting.’ So we had a lot of rehearsals and worked on things a lot. We had a really good experience.”
And he did bring some interesting things to the show. Moon Knight was a unique and captivating storyline in the Marvel world, because of Ethan’s contributions.
I absolutely love the advice from Maya: Why are you sitting on the outside and telling everyone their sandbox is bad?
The first thing I thought of when I read that is the local church – particularly the hordes of young people who are “deconstructing”, or making a hobby of critiquing and criticizing how the church is done.
Leaving the sandbox and telling everyone how horrible it is doesn’t;t do any good. I get it, the Church at large has some issues. But what if instead of taking the time to vomit all over it, why don’t we go play and see what we have to offer?
There are plenty of Youtubers, Podcasters, and Documentarians who are sitting on the outside making a mockery or bringing critiques to the table. Let’s commit to jumping in the sandbox and bringing what we have to offer, rather than pointing out the issues.