Marvel Studios is always on the lookout for filmmakers who might serve them well in crafting the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it should come as no surprise to hear that they’ve already met with director Lulu Wang, the filmmaker behind 2019’s acclaimed indie darling The Farewell. But they’re not just looking in the indie arena for new directing talent either. Following the success of Bad Boys for Life, directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have also been approached by Marvel Studios.
The pool of future Marvel movie directors is pretty much infinite, but it’s when a filmmaker gets breakout acclaim and accolades that Marvel starts paying attention. Even though Lulu Wang’s The Farewell didn’t receive any Oscar nominations, it was well-received by critics and audiences, earned two Golden Globes nominations, and performed well at the indie box office. So it’s understandable why Marvel would want to meet with her.
Lulu Wang (above) revealed her past meeting with Marvel during The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable discussion with this year’s buzzed about directors during awards season. The discussion host Stephen Galloway asked who among the directors (which also included Todd Phillips, Noah Baumbach, Fernando Meirelles, Greta Gerwig and Martin Scorsese) had been approached to direct a Marvel film, to which Wang raised her hand and said, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t reveal what movie she was approached to direct, if it was a specific title, or when the meeting took place. However, it’s possible that it happened for Black Widow, which courted several female indie filmmakers for the job before landing on Cate Shortland. There’s also the chance it could have been for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, since Wang is a Chinese-American filmmaker who could have brought a sensitive and careful eye to the Asian-inspired comic book hero. Anything is possible, but we’re just glad that a filmmaker like Wang is on Marvel’s radar.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah Met with Marvel Too
Meanwhile, on the blockbuster side of movies, Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah clearly impressed Marvel Studios by bringing Michael Bay’s action comedy franchise back to life. Speaking to ComicBook.com, El Arbi mentioned their meeting with Marvel, but it sounds more like a general meeting than a plan with something specific in mind. The co-director said:
“There’s nothing concrete. They just met us. They said they liked the movie and they just told us, ‘Yo, what do you wanna do? Let’s find something to work together on.’ So there’s nothing really planned yet, it was just like a meeting. But yeah, we’ll see if we find something cool. Now with Disney+ it has all evolved so much that there’s so much you can do. You can do a movie or you can do a TV show. And we’ve been so busy with Bad Boys that we’ve not explored everything yet. So what we’re going to do now, me and Bilall, is we’re going to check out all they got and we’d love to find something to work with them on, but it’s not yet clear what that would be.”
Marvel Comics has an expansive roster of characters, many of which general audiences aren’t even aware of. And even though Marvel Studios has a plan of what they want to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that doesn’t preclude the idea of something new sneaking its way into the future, especially with Disney+ offering a new outlet for what might be more oddball or outside the box ideas.
But Marvel likes meeting with as many filmmakers as they can, and it doesn’t always result in a working relationship. So for now, we’ll keep our ears to the ground for anything new.
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