Superhero movies: some of us may hate them, quite a lot of us still appear to absolutely love them, but they’re absolutely everywhere. And, according to comic book writer Mark Millar, the genre isn’t about to disappear any time soon. The artist believes that they’ve “got at least another good five years” before public interest starts to wane.

Millar, a creative consultant for Fox with a great deal of input and advice on the studio’s ongoing Marvel universe, has a great deal of insight into the genre and its seemingly never-ending popularity. However, he told IGN in a new interview that he believes that while these behemoths will eventually cease to be such a dominant force in the marketplace, superhero movies have got roughly half a decade before that happens.

Mark MillarMark Millar, photographed here at 'The Kingsman' premiere, reckons superhero movies aren't going anywhere soon

Specifically, he addressed Steven Spielberg’s comments last month that the superhero movie genre will eventually “go the way of the Western”. “The human race will go the way of the Western. Everything has to end at some point,” Millar said. “We're just going to be atoms. It's inevitable. I think [the genre has] got at least another good five years. The stuff that's coming up is so strong.”

The 45 year old Scottish artist is known for his work on material such as 'The Secret Service', 'Ultimate Fantastic Four' and 'Kick-Ass'. With many citing the comparative failure of Fantastic Four at the box office last month as evidence that superhero movies are slowly dying out, Millar offered his opinion on that particular debacle.

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“It's a shame because I think element of it were good. Some bits were good. I remember the first half in particular works well… …I really loved Chronicle [director Josh Trank’s previous movie]. It's just a shame sometimes things don't work out as planned. Nobody goes in hoping it's not going to work out. Everybody is trying their best and those guys worked their asses off. It just didn't quite come together as well as they hoped, which is a shame.”

Back on the subject of the wider genre, he continued: “There's no way Avengers 3 and Avengers 4 isn't going to make a ton of money. These are billion dollar grossers, multi-billion dollar grossers. Batman and Superman, just the fact those two icons are coming together, that's a billion dollar movies. So all this stuff that's coming up, there'll be flops but there'll be super strong ones. Guardians [of the Galaxy, the sequel] is going to be amazing, I can't wait for it.”

“I think a lot of filmmakers are waiting for this to end, too, because they hate it. I love superhero movies, but I know loads of people who hate them. There's an actress back in the UK who said last week that if she has to watch another Spider-Man movie, she's going to hang herself! They are aimed at a specific audience. I'm just glad that audience is me because I love it. It's brilliant. It's amazing.”

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