Kumail Nanjiani says Martin Scorsese is entitled to his Marvel opinion

At this point, it’s clear that joining the MCU is an important feather in the cap for basically every actor in Hollywood (or Broadway, for that matter). Once they’re in, however, a new initiation ritual seems to be emerging: they have to have an opinion on Martin Scorsese having an opinion on Marvel.

The most recent brave soul to speak out on this increasingly divisive issue is Kumail Nanjiani, who played Kingo in Eternals. “I obviously love the movies Tarantino makes or Scorsese makes,” the actor said in a recent Esquire interview (via Variety). He continued:

I may disagree with Scorsese’s opinion on superhero movies, but I mean, who else has earned the right to have an opinion? If Scorsese hasn’t earned the right to have an opinion on movies, then none of us should have an opinion on movies.

On the spectrum of opinions on opinions, Nanjiani’s opinion that “none of us should have an opinion” (deep breath) falls squarely in the center. Of course, many others in Marvel’s ever-expanding Rolodex have taken a more strongly-worded approach to this required interview question. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Danai Gurira recently took to GQ to defend the MCU, saying “We have to come in and pour all we’ve got into this franchise… So I hope that’s cinema to somebody,” while David Harbour (an MCU member himself) would rather watch Goodfellas than Captain America any day.

Nanjiani, however, wishes we could all just put aside our differences and be friends again. “It’s so strange that people get upset about it,” he said. Besides, he, for one, has loved his time in the belly of the beast. “I’d love to play him again. I wish I had more,” he said of his character Kingo in a recent A.V. Club interview. “I must forget I’m in this huge franchise when I’m working on it, or else I’d be paralyzed with fear. But it was great, and it was also fun to see an action figure of myself.”