Seth Rogen Breaks Silence on Why He Never Joined Marvel or DC

Seth Rogen, an executive producer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, shares the reason for his reluctance to work with Marvel or DC.

Filmmaker, producer and actor Seth Rogen, known for his work on The Boys, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Invincible, has recently talked about why he prefers to stay away from Marvel and DC Studios.

Rogen has quietly become an authoritative voice in the comic book cinema in recent years. In an interview with Polygon, the acclaimed producer spoke at length about his philosophy on choosing and creating big projects, jokingly saying that when it came to potential comic book adaptations his tastes were varied as long as they were "not Marvel and DC," although these criteria eliminated "a lot right away."

Seth Rogen and the Marvel or DC Process

Rogen has never worked with the industry giants, and according to him, it has been intentional. He mentioned that he was turned off by Marvel and DC out of "fear of the process." Rogen elaborated that he and Evan Goldberg, his friend and longtime collaborator, had "a pretty specific way" to work, as they have been "writers for 20 years." The filmmaker acknowledged that he did not know much about "the process" at Marvel or DC Studios, but its scale still scared him.

Despite loving "a lot of Marvel things," Rogen does not desire to become a part of their mechanism because he has no idea how he would "plug into the system they have in place, which seems like a very good system, and a system that serves them very well." The producer's concern has to do with the fact that he might "ultimately get frustrated" with the system, even though he believes that it represents a quality way of doing things.

Rogen went on to say that he was content with the system and the process he and Goldberg "dictated" for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem as they were the producers of the project. He stated that the "appealing" quality of the big franchises that he has been a part of was the ability to create the "infrastructure and process" from scratch for them, instead of "plugging into someone's else infrastructure and process." The producer finished off by saying that he and Goldberg were "control freaks," which many fans consider a good thing and the reason for their combined success.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is scheduled for release on Aug. 2, 2023. Paramount+ has already ordered a sequel movie and a spinoff series, which are currently in development.