Dear Mr. Butler: You Made Me Love You

RIP Clark Gable, you would have loved Austin Butler!

On July 7th, 2023, NPR published a 13-minute podcast episode called Are We Witnessing The Death Of Movie Stars? Critics Bob Mondello and Aisha Harris claimed the days of “American royalty” like Bettie Davis and Clark Gable are over as these days “the movie star appears to have been eclipsed by the franchises in which they appear.” They used Marvel as their evidence, even citing a clip of Anthony Mackie admitting he felt his character, The Falcon, was the star, not him. They make a good point–characters like Spiderman have been played by various actors throughout the years and remained successful because Marvel fans care more about the character than the actor himself.

However, some things happened after the episode was released that the hosts couldn’t have anticipated. The popularity of Marvel films began to decline, and exactly one week after the episode went public, SAG went on strike. I believe these are major factors in why movie stars haven’t died after all, but actually, they’re being reborn. One of the main threats Hollywood stars have been fighting is the use of AI to replace actors. This was at the center of the strikes, and it emphasized the importance of actors and the creativity humans possess that AI simply does not. At the same time, movie fans were participating in a cultural phenomenon called “Barbenheimer” as 2023’s biggest films of the year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, were released in theaters on the same day.