Meryl Streep spoke out about a change she notices: superhero pictures are reworking how characters are written, often by flattening them. Think of blockbuster formulas, e.g., MCU-style tentpoles — the gray areas, she says, are being pushed aside.
“It seems to me that you get a fairly realistic picture. Nowadays we tend to ‘Marvelize’ films. We have villains and we have good guys, and that’s so boring.”
She pushed back on that straight-line thinking. Ambiguity, she argued, is what gives dramatic figures texture — the messy, human bits (i.e., the flaws and contradictions) that keep them interesting.
“The most interesting thing in life is that some heroes are imperfect, and some villains are humanized and interesting, with their own strengths.”
On the business side: “The Devil Wears Prada 2”, in which Meryl played Miranda Priestly, opened nationwide on May 1 and has already earned over $100 million worldwide. Small caveat — box office doesn't settle the debate about character depth, but it’s part of the picture.