Stephen King Says Superhero Movie Violence Is ‘Almost Pornographic’ and ‘That’s Wrong’: City Blocks Are Destroyed and ‘You Never See Any Blood’

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/stephen-king-slams-superhero-movie-violence-pornographic-1236508011/

39 comments

  1. > “If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood,” King said. “And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic… I said [for ‘The Long Walk’], if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother. And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”

  2. I agree and I’ve always found it interesting that showing violence is so acceptable, but showing the consequences of violence – blood and gore is so taboo.

    Here is the full quote 

    > He went to school with kids “who wore the same neck dirt for months”. They sound like the characters in The Long Walk.

    > The same sort of kids that are pulled into the war machine,” he says. As he wrote it, in college on a scholarship, young men were being drafted to Vietnam. His only condition for the film adaptation was that we see the teenagers being shot.

    > ***If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see … some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks but you never see any blood,” he says. “And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic … I said, if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother.*** And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”

  3. But that’s not the movie’s fault. It’s because in the American film rating system, blowing up city blocks is PG-13, but lots of blood is probably not.

  4. When I woke up, I didn’t think I’d see this word salad combo today.

  6. I kinda agree with him.. I think some superhero action feels weightless at times like two action figures clanging together, but I don’t need to see blood and guts flying everywhere.

  7. He should watch invincible, the civilians get it really rough in that show

  8. Marvel is fun fantasy escapism, I don’t think anyone wants to see captain America pealing off someone’s skin and hair from his shield after knocking them around

  9. That is why I like “Boys”. They show exactly what it would look like.

  10. Few scenes in the MCU actually addressed the impact of the destruction. Tony Stark made a mention about about an entire city being destroyed by Ultron.

  11. Wow it’s almost like they want to appeal to a wider audience and can’t be showing that shit to kids.

  12. His books are not some tome about the negative effects of violence.

    He’s just mad he doesn’t get to see blood and gore…and it comes off like he’s got a bit of a fetish.

  13. This coming from the guy who made kids have an orgy in his book. And a man fuck another man’s asshole with a gun?

  14. Because that’s not the point of them. They’re meant to be fun fantasies. If your complaint is that the films about people flying around shooting eye lasers at robots and aliens aren’t as realistic as you’d expect them to be, then you may just not be getting the general premise of the films.

  15. As a homeowner and a taxpayer, I watch those things and think “Good God who’s going to pay for the rebuilding?”

  16. Civil War was literally about the collateral damage superheroes cause, and the anguish from the victims.

    Other movies like Superman put huge effort into showing people being evacuated so we can just enjoy the carnage without worrying about loss of life.

    Same thing Del Toro did with Pacific Rim. He put great effort into showing the buildings had emptied before the fights.

    It’s okay to have fun sometimes Steve.

  17. this is a subtheme of The Boys. A gross show but raised good questions.

  19. Just commentee this elsewhere, but I kind of get his point in a way.

    A LOT of comic book movies seem want to have it both ways these days. They want genuine stakes and loss, whilst remaining light and accessible. But IRL, the kinds of threats a group like the Avengers faces would be existentially horrific *in the extreme*, yet you see barely any notable violence actually shown and the characters in the midst of it are all cracking jokes, it’s just kind of odd.

    Either have the stakes be smaller so your level of violence doesn’t need to be sanitised (Raimi’s Spiderman), or lean into the violence and horror so you can actually show it (Reeve’s Batman).

  20. Whenever a building gets destroyed or falls or whatever in superhero movies, I always think “theres no way that didn’t just kill hundreds of people”

    Also reminds me of that scene in Watchmen (TV) where it actually shows a bit the aftermath of the event at Coney Island in New York circa 1985. That scene was brutal but seemingly realistic. Supposedly millions of people died in that event so it made sense that there were bodies absolutely everywhere

  21. Action minus gore is basically the whole point of comic books. Ain’t their fault that other movies aren’t doing other things. I admit it goes way too far into very basic metaphors very often, but I’m really just not watching godlike magic robots punch one another for philosophical reasons, and the comic book violence is a feature not a glitch.

  22. There’s a scene in Andor (mild spoilers) where a droid throws a women like 20 feet and she lands on concrete. It kills her. So many people were like… “What? How?” I feel like they’ve been desensitized by super hero movies and all around crazy antics in film (Star Wars included).

    Yeah… you get thrown 20 feet and land on concrete. See how well you take it. You’re not a super hero. If you do survive… you’re going to be messed up.

  23. everyone saying The Boys this or Invincible that. no one talking about Alan Moore’s Watchmen depicted graphic violence this in the squid based whole city destruction final scene just for Zack Snyder to gloss over it in the movie adaptation

  24. Noticed this in the Avatar movies. The violence is grotesque but there is only a few instances where blood is showed and most times it was very minor compared to what would actually occur in terms of the violence depicted.

  25. Marvel and DC feed into the American military worship and fantasies.

    Violence becomes macho and glory. Everyone they kill is deserving. There’s no gore and collateral damage, just fun and aftermath sex

  26. I feel like he has a point. But he’s also missing the point. If you are watching MCU films and thinking… this movie needs more blood. Its almost like watching a Rom Com and asking to see it all, full penetration. And maybe that’s where it becomes “pornographic”.

  27. It comes across a little tone-deaf “old man yells at clouds” but he’s got a point. Superheroes, even when they are the “good” guys routinely devastate the cities they are “saving”, usually from conflicts that only happened because of them in the first place. Aside from glamorizing irresponsibility and unaccountability the movies completely gloss over the human cost to violence and destruction.

  29. This is actually a problem I have with most superhero media and I’m a fan of the genre.

    Man of Steel was the first time I actually sat there in the theater and watched the total annihilation of a major city and thought, “Oh god. What about all the people in those buildings?”

    But to be fair, they tried to address that with BvS and the destruction of the city was one of the main reasons why Batman went after Superman.

    But I always think about Superman 2. They handled it perfectly. The fight starts in the city and you can actually see people being hurt on the street below. And Superman spends a lot of time trying to save civilians.

    And it’s after Ursula and Non throw a bus full of people at Superman, that Superman decides to fly away and lure the supervillains to the Fortress of Solitude.

    He even spends a few moments looking around at the people struggling amidst the chaos before flying away.

    In the new Superman (2025) there was still a lot of city destruction but at least they showed Superman saving people (and animals) from the destruction.

    And of course, Captain America: Civil War was about this very thing. The movie starts with Wanda accidentally blowing up a building full of people. And there are consequences for this.

    All in all, creators need to do a better job showing the consequences of collateral damage in superhero movies and TV shows. It humanizes these stories in a much needed way.

  30. Thats where shows like The Boys and Invincible fill in the gap.

  32. The rating system hates blood. You can get a PG-13 rating for any violence as long as you don’t show blood and gore.

  33. This is something I liked about the new Fantastic 4 movie. They thought of this and address it.

  35. A thread full of obtuse people missing the point or making the same predictable comments. Yikes, our society is in trouble…

  36. Says the guy who wrote an explicit gangbang scene of little kids.

  37. I don’t understand the use of the word pornographic… So, PG-13 superhero movies are pornographic but, if you see blood everywhere, it wouldn’t be pornographic?

    The word I would use is sanitized. Superhero movies sanitize violence… But, like most action blockbusters.

  38. So is a bunch of boys running a train on the one girl in their group

Comments are closed.