Seth Rogen Says Marvel Films Are Competition for His Big Comedies: 'They Are Legitimately Funny'

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Seth Rogen thinks Marvel movies have entered into the comedic genre — and are competition for traditional comedy films.

Rogen, 38, has excelled as a producer as well as an actor in recent years, with films like This Is the End (2013), Sausage Party (2016) and The Interview (2014). In an interview with GamesRadar, he reflected on the state of comedy in a new interview.

"Something that me and [producing partner] Evan [Goldberg] talk about a lot is how Marvel movies are comedies," the An American Pickle star said. "Thor: Ragnarok is a comedy. Ant-Man is a comedy at its core. So that's what's out there. There are $200 million comedies out there, and so that's something, as a comedic filmmaker, to be aware of. That is the benchmark that people expect!"

"If you're going to make a big huge comedy, just know that your competition is Marvel. Not to say you should not make those types of films, but know that's what audiences are seeing, and that, when you see those movies in theaters, they are playing like comedies. They are legitimately funny and star comedy stars."

Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd and Deadpool counts on Ryan Reynolds, two actors who have had successful comedy careers.

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Rogen listed his 2019 film Good Boys as an example of a comedic film with a smaller scope than Marvel that offers something different to audiences.

"What we're offering is pure comedy and emotion and relatability and nostalgia. That's the trade-off," he said. "You don't get to see the God of Thunder being hilarious, but you get to see something that maybe represents your actual life, and that's very gratifying in another way."

Rogen has been busy promoting his new HBO Max movie An American Pickle, in which he stars as a Polish immigrant, Herschel Greenbaum, who is preserved in a vat of pickle brine after an accident in the early 1900s only to wake up in the 21st century.

In modern-day Brooklyn, Herschel meets his great-grandson Ben, also played by Rogen, promising a funny — and emotional — fish-out-of-water story about the American Dream.

An American Pickle is available to stream on HBO Max now.