Few comic book movies have attained a level of notoriety achieved by Howard the Duck. Released during the very infancy of the entire genre, the 1986 film has widely been regarded as one of the worst comic book movies ever committed to celluloid. However, not everything about the movie is a total disaster. In fact, the failure of Howard the Duck ultimately led to one actress’ involvement in a much better, more iconic movie.
During a recent interview with THR, actress Lea Thompson revealed that the failure of Howard the Duck is what ultimately drove her to take a role in the 1987 classic, Some Kind of Wonderful. She explained:
I had to get on another movie. I wouldn’t have done the movie if Howard wasn’t such as bomb. … Things that seemed bad had turned out to be good in the end. It was a pretty demented movie, though.
Talk about a silver lining. It seems that as soon as Lea Thompson knew Howard the Duck would bomb at the box office – a revelation that didn’t take long to figure out – she aggressively set about finding another project for herself. This eventually led her to nab the role of Amanda Jones in John Hughes and Howard Deutch’s Some Kind of Wonderful, a film that has gone on to become a 1980s classic. Had Howard the Duck not turned out so poorly, she would have never felt the impetus to make such a drastic career decision, and as such it seems that she looks back fondly on the overall ordeal.
Although Howard the Duck has gone on to achieve a cult following in certain circles of film fans, we simply cannot deny that mainstream audiences do not look back fondly on the film at all. The overall genre simply had not quite figured out how to take itself seriously during the mid-1980s. Additionally, special effects had not caught up with the outlandish visuals inherent to a Howard the Duck movie, and as such the movie possesses some genuinely terrible production values. Seriously, unless you plan on watching it ironically, Howard the Duck is a film best left forgotten.
Of course, there’s always the chance that Howard the Duck could achieve the sort of redemption that so many have clamored for. The character made an appearance during the credits of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, which hinted at the possibility of Marvel potentially reviving the character and giving him the sort of silver screen treatment that he deserves.
Lea Thompson herself recently made a cameo in the Howard the Duck comics, so if such a revival ever takes place, we remain hopeful that she could even reunite with the anthropomorphic bird at some point as well. In this modern age of meta movies and awesome fan service, our fingers remained firmly crossed that something like that will happen at some point in the very near future.
