I would like to think that a lot of us are on the same page about Marvel’s relationship with the military. If you aren’t fully caught up on their relationship, it’s pretty simple. If Marvel Studios plans on using any military equipment or official military portrayals in any of their movies, they need to partner with the military to “accurately” portray them in the film. Many people have misunderstood this relationship to mean that the U.S. government has its grubby little hands in every Marvel movie. Simply put, no. They’ve made it clear that they want nothing to do with any MCU movie that is “too out there” and exploring the cosmic landscape of space.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director, James Gunn, responded to a fan on Twitter who commented on a leaked Eternals spoiler involving the characters’ influence on world history in the film, saying that the plot point was particularly remarkable because “Marvel scripts are all approved in advance by the Pentagon.” Gunn refuted the claim by saying, “Marvel scripts are not all approved by the Pentagon. Where do people come up with this nonsense?”

Gunn went onto clarify that when a film uses military assets, it has to get approval from the government to ensure that these assets are not being disparaged. “This is very few films – and, from what I know, the military is pretty loose about it,” Gunn said. However, conflicts between Hollywood and the Pentagon do happen from time to time. For example, when the United States announced that it would be adding a new branch to the armed forces, it came into conflict with Netflix over naming rights. Since the series Space Force produced merchandise before the actual United States Space Force, Netflix was able to make a claim to the name.

Marvel Studios films that have been notably been under review were the first two installments of the Iron Man film series. The Iron Man’s script was subjected to review from the Pentagon isn’t especially shocking to anyone, given the film’s subject matter, but it is a bit unsettling. Marvel makes fun family films about heroism and teamwork; whatever echo of ideology that could be found in them shouldn’t, by all rights, be influenced by the Pentagon.

In other Marvel news, the MCU has a real diversity issue.

Photo via Marvel