Superhero movies won’t last forever: Steven Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg, who helped usher in the age of the modern blockbuster with Jaws, and, much later, Jurassic Park, doesn’t think the current trend of blockbusters, the superhero movie, will be around for too long.

In a recent interview given to EW, Spielberg said that the current age of the superhero movie is nothing more than a passing fad destined to go the way of the Western. Which is to say, it’s a niche genre without much staying power.

“There will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western,” Spielberg explained. “Right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I’m only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us.”

Unless going “the way of the Western” means Iron Man and Captain America are going to start wearing cowboy boots, this is a little disconcerting. But, hey, what does Spielberg know, right? Sure, his recent project, “Jurassic World,” went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time, but who keeps track of that stuff anyway?

Despite the director’s ominous prediction, fans shouldn’t get too concerned just yet. Remember, these are superheroes we’re talking about, and they never stay dead for long. Spielberg added that there could always be another time when the superhero movie returns. And with “Captain America: Civil War,” “Deadpool” and “Batman v Superman” all scheduled to come out next year, it doesn’t look like they’re going to die too soon.

Spielberg’s Cold War movie, which reunites him with Tom Hanks for the first time since The Terminal, arrives in theaters on Oct. 16. The director is currently in post-production on The BFG, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book.