Nicolas Cage Calls the MCU a 'Glorified WWE' at Fan Expo Dallas

Nicolas Cage has never been a performer content to hold a diplomatic silence, and his remarks at Fan Expo Dallas over the weekend confirmed as much. Speaking onstage at the convention, the actor offered a pointed — if affectionate — critique of where superhero cinema has landed in its third decade of cultural dominance.

A Fan's Frustration With the Formula

Cage framed his comments not as an outsider's dismissal but as the concern of a genuine devotee, according to TheWrap. He acknowledged that the Marvel Cinematic Universe built something genuinely impressive in its early chapters — the way it threaded disparate character histories into a coherent, evolving mythology was, by his account, a storytelling achievement worth admiring. The problem, as he sees it, is that the architecture has gradually given way to spectacle. "When I see these 50-plus, otherwise intelligent, remarkably gifted thespians putting on these ridiculous outfits and getting ready for the fight," Cage told the crowd, "it's hard for me not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE." The room reportedly responded with laughter — a sign that the observation, however blunt, landed as comic commentary rather than bitter grievance.

The critique carries a certain weight coming from someone who has occupied multiple corners of the comic-book adaptation universe. Cage starred in two Ghost Rider films — movies that leaned into pulpy excess in ways he clearly distinguishes from what he finds creatively limiting today. (Those films remain worth revisiting; both Ghost Rider films are now free to stream — and Cage makes them worth it.) He also appeared in Kick-Ass and lent his voice to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film that demonstrated how much formal invention the genre still had available to it when filmmakers chose to pursue it.

Spider-Noir as the Counterargument

Cage was quick to separate his own recent Marvel project from the tendency he was criticizing. His work in Prime Video's Spider-Noir — in which he plays a Depression-era, noir-detective variant of Peter Parker — was, by his telling, built around mystery and character rather than choreographed confrontation. "It wasn't cutting to the fight. It was a detective story. There was a mystery there," he explained, adding that he would like to see the broader genre "get back to telling the stories and not just cutting to the wrestling match."

It is worth noting that Spider-Noir received strong reviews and generated awards conversation before Prime Video made the difficult decision to cancel it — a development that felt particularly frustrating given the creative ground the series had staked out. Prime Video cancelled Spider-Noir despite Emmy buzz and strong reviews, leaving Cage's most praised recent genre work without a continuation.

A Career That Complicates the Critique

Cage's relationship with comic-book culture runs deeper than his filmography alone. He famously named his son Kal-El — Superman's birth name in DC mythology — in 2005, and came extraordinarily close to playing the Man of Steel himself in Tim Burton's ill-fated Superman Lives project. That near-miss has taken on a strange afterlife in pop-culture consciousness; the question of whether Nicolas Cage's Superman Lives might receive a possible tribute in Supergirl is one that fans of that era of development-hell history continue to debate.

What makes Cage's Fan Expo remarks worth taking seriously is precisely his credibility as a participant in and enthusiast of the genre. This is not a prestige actor waving dismissively at a form he considers beneath him. It is someone who clearly believes superhero storytelling is capable of more than its current dominant mode suggests — and who has, in at least one recent case, helped demonstrate what that might look like.

What Comes Next for Cage

Cage's next major project moves entirely away from the comic-book realm. He is set to appear as legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden in Madden, a Prime Video biopic directed by David O. Russell scheduled for release in November. It is the kind of character-driven, personality-first project that sounds, in spirit, not unlike the storytelling values he was advocating for on that Dallas stage.