Peter Sarsgaard is no stranger to superhero films. Even before his upcoming role in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” as shady District Attorney Gil Coulson, Sarsgaard went full-on villain for the oft-maligned Ryan Reynolds film, “Green Lantern” back in 2011. That film saw the actor bury himself under prosthetics to play Hector Hammond. And now, more than a decade later, he thinks that the world might have reached its saturation point with superhero films.
Speaking to The Guardian about his roles in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” and the aforementioned “The Batman,” Peter Sarsgaard talked about his worries about the superhero film genre. Particularly, he thinks the world might have a bit too many of them and thinks that actors better be picky about which cape or cowl they put on.
In the interview, Sarsgaard was asked if we have reached the superhero film saturation point yet. “Probably,” Sarsgaard replied. “So, if you’re going to do one, you’d better be damn sure Matt Reeves is directing it.”
Reeves, of course, is the director of “The Batman,” which is set to release next week. That film is yet another reboot of the ‘Batman’ franchise and is expected to put a hyper-realistic, grounded spin on the character, even more so than what Christopher Nolan did with his “Dark Knight” trilogy. So, in that sense, it’s about as un-superhero-y as a superhero film can probably be.
Sarsgaard isn’t necessarily talking about “The Batman” being the issue, obviously. Compared to the output coming from Marvel Studios, a new ‘Batman’ film is just a drop in the bucket. Each year, Marvel releases at least 3 films and multiple TV series. Now, with Warner Bros. trying to take advantage of HBO Max, you’re going to see similar output from the DC side of things, too. We’ll just have to wait and see if the world is willing to accept all these capes and cowls or if we’ll start to see diminishing returns.
“The Batman” arrives in theaters on March 4.