Sebastian Stan Says ‘If Marvel Was Gone’ It’d Leave a ‘Big Hole,’ Tells Off MCU Haters: ‘Don’t Just S— on Something Without Offering Something Better’

Sebastian Stan is tired of Marvel movie backlash. The actor, who has played Bucky Barnes in the MCU since 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” once again lamented over Marvel being a punching bag in Hollywood, this time in an interview with GQ UK magazine.

“I’ve never been part of a company that puts so much heart and thought into anything,” Stan told the publication. “I think if Marvel was gone, it’d be such a big hole to try and fill up. Don’t just go out there and shit on something without offering something better.”

Marvel fans largely rejected the studio’s 2023 offerings as critical duds like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” flopped at the box office. The latter title became the studio’s lowest-grossing movie in history. Marvel has also been called out over the years by top film directors such as Martin Scorsese for drastically altering film exhibition and driving out smaller films from multiplexes.

In an interview for a Variety cover story last month, Stan said that while some movie fans continue to criticize the quality of the MCU and the franchise’s seismic effect on movie culture, he sees them as crucial to the entertainment industry as a whole.

“It’s become really convenient to pick on [Marvel films],” Stan said. “And that’s fine. Everyone’s got an opinion. But they’re a big part of what contributes to this business and allows us to have smaller movies as well. This is an artery traveling through the system of this entire machinery that’s Hollywood. It feeds in so many more ways than people acknowledge.”

“Sometimes I get protective of it because the intention is really fucking good,” Stan added at the time. “It’s just fucking hard to make a good movie over and over again.”

Marvel got back on track this year with the summer release of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing R rated release in history. The studio has no MCU releases set for the remainder of the year. Stan’s Bucky/Winter Soldier will be front and center in next year’s Marvel tentpole “Thunderbolts,” and he hopes the character stays around long enough to meet Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom on the big screen.

“I hope I’m in a scene with him,” Stan says. “Is there any other guy that could pull that off? I don’t know, probably not. After ‘Tropic Thunder,’ is there anything that guy can’t do?”

“Thunderbolts” opens in theaters May 2, 2025. Head over to GQ UK’s website to read Stan’s profile in its entirety.