Shawn Levy on The Adam Project: Weird coincidence that I cast four Marvel superheroes

While having four top Hollywoood stars who also play Marvel superheroes in his time-travel action film, The Adam Project, is a "strange coincidence," director Shawn Levy says his intention was to simply cast a collection of terrific actors.

In the next sci-fi film, Ryan Reynolds, renowned for the Deadpool films, Mark Ruffalo, who played The Hulk in the original Avengers, Zoe Saldana, who played Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy film trilogy, and Jennifer Garner, who played Elektra in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, star in the next sci-fi film.

The Adam Project, which will be released on Netflix on March 11, pays homage to Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future flicks in a way that is almost Home Alone-like.

The plot revolves around a time-traveling pilot (Reynolds) who joins forces with his younger self (Walker Scobell) and his late father (Mark Ruffalo) to come to terms with his past while attempting to preserve the future.

When asked what it took to assemble such a star-studded cast, Levy told PTI that it took a lot of work. It was not his aim to cast four Marvel superheroes, so it's a strange coincidence. He attempted to cast four excellent actors.

According to the director, everyone said "yes" right away. The film, written by Jonathan Tropper, T. S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin, has such a resonant and emotive core premise.

Levy revealed that he joined at the same time as Reynolds. Then they went to Ruffalo, Saldana, and Garner, and they all said yes, because they all saw how much fun and escapism this film would be, as well as how resonant and emotional it would be. 

The filmmaker went on to say that they don't get to make many films that are both visually stunning and emotionally moving. Most films only allow them to do one or the other, but this one allowed us to do both.

The 53-year-old director, whose credits include the Night at the Museum series, Real Steel, Stranger Things, and Free Guy, believes time travel will continue to appeal because it taps into the collective human urge to go back.

Levy finds time travel fascinating because, while it is an intellectual concept, it is ultimately emotional in that it plays with the one rule of human life over which we have no control. Time is linear; it only allows one to move forward, but they all have a desire to travel back in time. The filmmaker believes it literalizes a fantasy, which is why it's such a difficult concept to grasp.

Despite its swanky and future setting, The Adam Project has an emotional core, according to the Canadian filmmaker, which is the story's beating heart.

Levy further explained that life is a transitory moment, and family ties are no exception. One imagines them to be eternal, but they aren't. Thus, the film serves as a powerful reminder to express the words that are on one's mind, because one may not always be able to do so, and if they don't, they will regret it forever. That is a really emotional and meaningful truth about human life.

The Adam Project is also Levy's first collaboration with Reynolds since the action-comedy Free Guy in 2021, and he hopes that this creative brotherhood will continue with more diverse stories. 

Levy appreciates Reynolds and his fraternity. They transitioned from Free Guy to The Adam Project, both of which were quite fulfilling to hear. His favourite aspect is how varied they are from one another, and how they're part of a creative fraternity that will hopefully continue to produce a diverse range of tones and stories.