Shared cinematic universes are Hollywood’s favorite recipe for box office domination, or so the industry keeps hoping. Ever since Marvel turned interconnected franchises into a cultural phenomenon, studios everywhere have been chasing that same magic.
From Universal’s ill-fated Dark Universe to DC’s repeated reboots, it’s clear that not everyone can replicate Marvel’s billion-dollar success. As you know, James Gunn and DC Studios are now giving it a go again and it will launch with Superman.
But is all this universe-building doing more harm than good? For director James Mangold, known for films like Logan and his new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, the answer is yes. In fact, he doesn’t just dislike shared universes, he calls them “the death of storytelling.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone while promoting A Complete Unknown, Mangold addressed the growing obsession with tying films together into sprawling franchises.
When asked if he’d ever considered bringing back Joaquin Phoenix, who starred in his Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, for a multiverse-style Dylan crossover, Mangold shut down the idea immediately.
“I don’t like multi-movie universe-building,” he said. “I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.”
Mangold’s frustration stems from how shared universes often prioritize connections, Easter eggs, and setups for future movies over telling a self-contained story.
He added: “For me, the goal becomes, always, ‘What is unique about this film, and these characters?’ Not making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level.”
His point hits home because when a film exists primarily to sell you on the next film, its own story becomes secondary. The emotional connection gets lost in a sea of intellectual exercises and franchise bait.
That’s not to say shared universes are inherently meaningless. At their best, they can still deliver compelling stories while weaving broader narratives. But Mangold’s critique cuts to the heart of the issue, which is when storytelling takes a backseat to franchise-building, what’s left is little more than a hollow spectacle.
As James Gunn gears up to reboot DC’s cinematic universe, and other studios continue chasing Marvel’s blueprint, Mangold’s words feel like a call for restraint. Maybe the best stories don’t need to be part of something bigger. Maybe they’re best left to stand on their own.
Mangold is currently working on two big franchise films right now including a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm and a Swamp Thing movie for DC, but he has said that these films are standalone stories that don’t really conect with the rest of the universes that they reside in.
When talking about his Star Wars film, Mangold acknowledged the challenges of working within a franchise so steeped in lore, saying: “I’m not that interested in being handcuffed by so much [immovable] lore at this point that it’s almost immovable, and you can’t please anybody.”
When discussing Swamp Thing, he said: “Swamp Thing at DC, it’s just a matter of—do we find a way on the page to say something original?
“While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster. Just doing my own thing with this, just a standalone.”
What do you think? Are shared universes killing storytelling, or do they still have a place in cinema?
