Nicolas Cage, whose recent credits include the Sony Marvel series Spider-Noir, has criticised the Marvel Cinematic Universe, calling it an overfunded and embarrassing spectacle.

“I do say this with love,” said Cage at a fan convention in Texas. “When I see these 50-plus and otherwise intelligent and remarkably gifted thespians putting on these ridiculous outfits and getting ready for the fight – let’s face it, it’s all cutting to the fight – it’s hard for me not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE.”

Cage’s association with Marvel, the company run by comic book artist Stan Lee for many decades, includes not only Spider-Noir, which was cancelled after a single season, but also two movies in which he played the superhero Ghost Rider.

Cage, 62, told Variety his attraction to Spider-Noir was primarily aesthetic. “I wanted to try to create an essence of some of my favourite old world actors,” he said, “because I wanted to embody that style – Bogart, Cagney, Edward G Robinson – and designed my performance to fit within the black-and-white format.”

Other film stars and directors to express scepticism about Marvel movies include Martin Scorsese, who likened them to “theme parks”, and Francis Ford Coppola, who described the company as “despicable”.

Denis Villeneuve said he felt there were “too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ of others,” while Ken Loach called superhero films “boring” and “a cynical exercise [that] has nothing to do with the art of cinema”.

Cage will next be seen as the lead in David O Russell’s biopic of Super Bowl impresario John Madden.