Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige on how he convinced everyone The Avengers mattered
Film Features Interview
When Kevin Feige started at Marvel 19 years ago, it was as a whip-smart junior producer making his mark on the set of X-Men by impressing his coworkers with the depth of his comics knowledge. Now he’s the head of Marvel Studios, where he’s taken viewers through the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the course of 21 incredibly beloved—and profitable—films. Ahead of Avengers: Endgame, which brings the third phase—and potentially some of Marvel’s most beloved superheroes—to an end, The A.V. Club sat down with Feige to talk about how The Avengers have grown from second-tier superheroes to deep and diverse icons.
The A.V. Club: Is this where you thought you’d be when you started at Marvel Studios—as in, did you think it would be this big?
Kevin Feige: I was just excited to be a part of the movies. I was just excited to be in the room where it happens, as Lin-Manuel Miranda would say. I still feel that way. The creative process is always about dreaming about what could be, dreaming about “You know, one day we could do this.” I remember being on set of the first X-Men film when the greatest show of power that Magneto could do was that he would lift his hands and have police cars lift into the air. We had actual police cars with cranes pulling them up, and then you erase the wire in post. I don’t know if this is a random story, but you remember that scene, right? Anyway, I think the police are there and he takes one of the guns, turns it around, and points it at the police officer’s head.
I had a comic image from around that time, or maybe a few years before where Magneto had taken a gun and split it into all of its component parts. I kept walking around with that picture going, “Look at this. That’s what we should do. Wouldn’t that be cool?” And people were like, “We don’t have the budget for that. We can put a shotgun on wires and have it turn around and point at his head.” I remember thinking, “Man, in the comics they go to space and they do lots of other stuff. Wouldn’t it be amazing one day to be able to really showcase what these characters can do?” Not just the X-Men, but what all these characters can do and really deeply explore how deep the Marvel Universe is.
It’s not just a kid who puts on a costume in an alleyway or a group of mutants in a mansion in upstate New York. It’s a literal universe, and there are so many different areas to explore. So I would always dream of those kinds of things. Even on Iron Man one, having Nick Fury come in, that was me saying, “Let’s see if we can get people excited by this notion of there being a bigger universe, but [Iron Man] just doesn’t know it yet.” It’s all because of Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau and the audience that came out for Iron Man one that we could solidify our plan and start moving ahead towards Avengers.
AVC: Now you can split the gun into its component parts. How much of that is due to technological advances, and how much of that is because you’re given more of a leash given that you’re producing some of the biggest movies on the planet?
KF: It’s all of the above. X-Men one was a unique example, because it was from so long ago when we were working with a very limited budget. So that was a big part of it. The other big part of it was that just because I thought something was cool didn’t mean anyone was going to do it.
I think they had the technology then to do it, but it would be much more difficult. It wouldn’t have looked as good.
AVC: You needed time to pass so that you could make the effects—from the splitting gun to the Avengers in space—look the way they really should.
KF: Have they done it now? Has Magneto done that in an X-Men movie? Probably.
AVC: Avengers: Endgame is the end of Marvel’s third phase. How far do you have everything planned out in your head? Whether it’s stated within the company or just in your mind, do you know where things are going five, 10, 20 years from now?
KF: You know, between five and 10 in a very broad 35,000-foot way. The next three or four years, much more specifically than that. We do have the plan that we’ve been working on now for many years and will eventually be talking about when this film and Spider-Man: Far From Home are released.
AVC: In the past couple of years, the MCU has gotten more diverse with the film introduction of Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and the fleshing out of characters like Black Widow. How has your vision of the franchise or the universe changed over the course of your run? When you were introducing The Avengers, by nature, that’s a lot of guys. How have you used the MCU to respond to the public’s cry for more diversity, both on- and off-screen?
KF: The Marvel comics have always had a deep bench, but when we were starting, people didn’t even think Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America were heavy hitters. They thought they were the deep bench because most people—and I’m mainly talking about the press—thought that without X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, or Daredevil, what movies is Marvel going to make? That was how they looked at the announcement of Iron Man and Captain America. So we had to prove that those characters were interesting, that those characters could compete with the films that had already been been based on the other quote-unquote “more popular” characters. Those were the roster of characters leading up to The Avengers, which we very much wanted to do.
The advantage of the success of that is we could keep going. And, you know, it’s not a secret. We were putting Wakanda Easter eggs back in Iron Man 2, because we wanted to get there someday. We’re now there. The timing of that has coincided with the audience saying, “Let’s have more diversity. Let’s see more.” There’s also the films being more popular around the world and people of all different types wanting to see them.
There are parts of me that wanted both those movies—but Captain Marvel in particular—to have happened earlier. But in hindsight, I’m happy they happened when they did, because I can’t imagine it would have been more successful if they had come out a few years earlier.
AVC: AMC is screening every MCU movie as a marathon in the run-up to Endgame. Do you think you could sit through the whole thing?
KF: It’s a lot of movies. It’s something like 59 hours, though that cannot even be right. That would be hard. I mean, I could watch all these movies in a row, but I’d like to get a night’s sleep in between them. Go get a meal.
AVC: Maybe take a bus from AMC to AMC.
KF: I did hear that actually they are moving around from theater to theater because the projectors can’t hold all of the movies on one of the DCP chips. So they will be moving to different theaters. I mean, at least they won’t get bedsores if they’re able to walk around. And I believe there are meal breaks planned. By the way, I’ve been doing this for 19 years, so 59 hours seems like nothing.
AVC: We interviewed Sam Jackson at the Captain Marvel junket, and he said something to the effect that when he signed a nine-picture deal, he thought it would take 20 years. In 19 years, you’ve actually made 22 movies.
KF: We always planned for two movies a year from the start. There are some years we didn’t get there. I think that in 2009 we didn’t do anything. 2012, we only did one. Now we’ve gotten up to three. So we did get there.
The thing that I remember about that is that when people—and, again, this is mainly in the press—would go, “They’re signing their life away for nine pictures” And I always say, “Well, we’ll only get to nine pictures if it works.” We’ll only get to nine pictures if the audience is having a good time. And we’re having a good time and the actors are having a good time, so that we’ve actually gotten there now with Sam, I think Scarlett [Johansson] and Downey, though Downey wasn’t a nine-picture deal.
It was a privilege, though. It was a sign that it was all working that we got to that many movies. And nobody’s a better example of that than Sam. Sam was as enthusiastic and involved with that Captain Marvel junket than I’ve ever seen him, nine movies in or whatever it was.
AVC: Also, the way you’ve woven the universe together, no single person has to carry nine movies. They’re not doing nine months or a year of work on every single movie.
KF: It’s exciting that nine movies or however many movies in for Sam, that’s probably the biggest part Nick Fury had in any of the movies, right? It was Captain Marvel, I think. And how fun for that to be eight or nine or whatever movies in.
AVC: Last question. You have a daughter.
KF: Yes. She’s 10 years old.
AVC: Has she dressed up as an Avenger?
KF: She likes to make her own costumes and a lot of them involve versions of cats. She went as a cat witch a couple of years ago. I do have a memory from not too long ago of her wearing a Black Panther mask and running around. It only now occurs to me that maybe she thought it was a cat. That was probably around Civil War, and I remember thinking, “That will be one of many signs that that’s a success if you have people of all types and all colors dressing up as that character.” It’s finding the wish fulfillment, yes, in people that look like you, which is an important thing for people to have, but also identifying and tapping into the wish fulfillment of people that do not look like you. Ryan Coogler says that when he was growing up, he did that all the time with white heroes, but now people get the opportunity to do that with all different types.
93 Comments
Seriously…does this guy ever NOT wear a friggin’ ball cap?
His hair is a disaster. Be thankful.
You don’t know any balding white males…?
I know me.
He should take his cues from Jeff Bridges’s turn as Obediah Stane. Grow a beard and lean into the baldness.
Either that or pay for a hair transplant, or even better hats – the cap look is awful.
I’ve been trying that for a while, and as my Tinder profile will attest, it doesn’t really work. It doesn’t work when I shave, either. I’m pretty much just hideous. Feige probably is too, so lean into the ballcap, my dude.
“Hey, so we’re gonna make Marvel movies, right, guys? Hows about we start with the team that’s been the Pillar of every major crossover even since the 90’s???”ta-da!
I really don’t understand why people say The Avengers were in Marvel’s deep bench. Most people were at least familiar with Captain America and definitely knew who the Hulk was
Cap, Thor, Hulk, were definitely top tier in marvel before the movies.The only one they had to bring up was Iron Man.
For comic fans sure. For the general public? Not so much.
Thor?No.Marvel’s traditional worldwide name-recognition tier heroes for decades were Hulk, Spider-man, and Captain America. Thor and Iron Man were second tier at best.Then in the late 80s/early 90s the X-Men exploded (especially Wolverine), and outshone all their previous staples.So it’s fair to say that it wasn’t a simple feat to bring together a group of heroes comprising a very mixed bag of popularity and still finesse things to this degree, while also somehow making them seem cooler, hipper, and more natural than all the organic-pop-hit material they sold off.I mean, look at DC — they teamed up the “Trinity” of the 3 most recognizable heroes in the world, and still managed to turn it into a steaming turd.
also note that Feige didn’t have access to Spidey, X-men or Fant four, so he used the most popular characters he had at his table to start. It’s not like he was all “Lets make a movie about NFL Superpro!” and it made a billion dollars and kick-started a universe based off of Kickers, INC., Man-Thing and Ka-Zar. He took already existing, profitable IP the Marvel had the rights to, and made it popular.
They were top tier among comic fans. The general public knew the Hulk from the 1970s TV series. The rest of the Avengers were definitely not known to the general public, which is who Fiege is producing for.
You could get all of the current comic book purchasers in the theater for one of these movies and it would be a huge flop.
complete BS. Iron Man had a cartoon on during the 90s, that basically GOT ME into comic books in the first place. Thats where i learned about Cap, MODOK, War Machine, The Mandarin,Hawkeye etc.By the time that he launched the Marvel Movie U, there was already a groundswell of internet geeks like me that grew up on Marvel cartoons in the 90s (including X-men, Fant Four, Hulk) that were into these “definitely not known” characters that were ready and willing to take a chance on the movies.
Cool. You are not representative of the general public.
There’s a reason there were a fuck-ton of articles explaining who each of these characters were when their movies were coming out and that they date back as far, or farther (in the case of Captain America) than Spider-Man.
First, I’m pretty sure I count within the general public, even if i was into comics as a teenager. Second, the table was set for all of these movies by Transformers, By the McGuire Spider-man films, By the Nolan Batman series, by Superman Returns, The X-Men, The campy Fantastic Four movies,etc. The “General Public” had already been inundated by nerd culture for YEARS before Iron-man came out. (Also coupled with it’s April release date, which everyone has seemed to forgotten was a dead slot back eleven years ago) so to say that the market wasn’t primed for more superhero movies isn’t just stupid, it’s a fallacy.
First, I’m pretty sure I count within the general public, even if i was into comics as a teenager.Since we’re talking about whether or not people who weren’t into comics knew them, no, you don’t. You are someone who had a heightened interest and awareness of comics compared to the general public before Iron Man and the other Avengers movies debuted.
You do get to be in the “I liked comics before they were cool” category, though, which can be an enjoyable place to be.
nah, comics were always cool. anyone who uses that jank line about anything is just seeking meaningless validation through association.you can go an see the other comments i’ve made on this to show that Fiege and Marvel fought with Favreau over his casting of RDjr in the first place, and that he didn’t even make the pitches for the first few movies.also, the fact that Favreau uses those other franchises as a selling point on why the movies are profitable (which is what i;ve been saying) is in there a whole bunch. just go and look at the Wikipedia entry for Iron-man from 2008.
They were not on the same level as Spider-Man, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, i.e., the ones having movies already made.
correct, but he didn’t have that IP to use, so he used the ones that were already out there and profitable.
That’s very true, but had he had access to Spidey, Wolverine and the FF, we might just now be seeing Iron Man, Thor and Cap take over Phase Four from those franchises.
I’m sure they would be, but for him to say the he had to convince people that IPs that were profitable and recognizable and had a market that was PRIMED for them was all on him, that’s BS. I’m sure Disney saw that market coming when they bought the Marvel brand, not when some bozo in a ball-cap directed the helm of a mighty company.
I’m sure they did, but they bought Marvel after the launch of Marvel Studios and the release of Iron Man, so while it might not be to the extent that this interview portrays, there is at least some truth to the idea that he had to hard sell studios, Paramount in particular, on the validity and worth of an Iron Man movie (especially with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star).
I’m sure he had to hard sell them for that $140 budget and to get John Favreau attached to it as well…. (eyeroll)from Wikipedia….“Favreau planned to cast a newcomer in the title role, as “those movies don’t require an expensive star; Iron Man’s the star, the superhero is the star. The success of X-Men and Spider-Man without being star-driven pieces reassures [executives] that the film does have an upside commercially.”[54] However, in September 2006, Robert Downey, Jr. was cast in the role.[55] Favreau chose Downey, a fan of the comic,[6] because he felt the actor’s past made him an appropriate choice for the part, explaining “The best and worst moments of Robert’s life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark.””tell me exactly where Kevin Fiege is in any of that sell????
At the forefront, because he’s the guy that sold the idea to the studio, and hired Favreau. Also, that $140 million dollar budget is a pittance compared to similar genre movies from the time.As a humongous fan of the characters in question, I understand your passion for them, but I don’t think you fully realize how big of a gamble Iron Man and, by extension, the earliest portions of the MCU were. Had it failed, Incredible Hulk would have been the last Marvel Studios film, and the rest of the characters would have been sold off to keep the comics division afloat, again.
Had it failed, the Spiderman movies would have still gone on, The Xmen franchises would have been rebooted at some point, we just wouldn’t have the Disney Universe. We May have had a better FOX universe, we would never know. Also, there would be no balance to the Nolan Batflms, and we’d be in total grimdark movie franchises.
forgot the next line where he had to fight Marvel to even get RDjr…“Favreau faced opposition from Marvel in casting Downey, but would not take no for an answer, saying, “It was my job as a director to show that it was the best choice creatively … everybody knew he was talented [and] certainly by studying the Iron Man role and developing that script I realized that the character seemed to line-up with Robert in all the good and bad ways.[56] “
To be fair, Hollywood is famously insular and conservative – I’m sure that when they green-lit an X-Men movie at Fox they were thinking about the 90s animated TV series and especially the franchise’s track record with games and toys. Ditto Hulk and Spider-Man (who also had his inept twin, Newspaper Spider-Man, to maintain brand recognition). Iron Man may have been a tough sell: the animated series only lasted two seasons, and he wasn’t well-represented in games or other merchandise. Captain America might have been a tough sell, since he had been in that campy 1990 DTV movie. I doubt Thor had a pop culture footprint outside of the Electric Company shorts from the 70s.That said, I don’t know who was clamoring for movies about Blade or Daredevil (or even Fantastic Four), so it’s not like “throw a Marvel character at the screen and hope for the best” was a new idea. And as you point out this was all happening after the nerd-boom of the mid-2000s (when I was little, kids made fun of me for liking Lord of the Rings). The difficulty of making Phase 1 has probably been exaggerated now that the franchise is so successful (and Feige is an expert self-promoter). Really, Jon Favreau deserves more credit for setting a tone and general aesthetic for the franchise. If the whole thing hadn’t taken off, the stinger at the end of Iron Man would just be a fun curiosity (see: Young Sherlock Holmes).
Iron man wasn’t a hard sell though, and Fiege didn’t even make the pitches for it, Jon Favreau did, and Marvel (Kevin Fiege) fought him on his casting choices.Not to mention that if you go and see Fiege’s production credits, he produced the Xmen and Spiderman movies as well, all Fiege.
Oh how quickly they forget The Incredible Hulk Returns.
Being an X-Men follower from the 90s, I knew Iron Man way more than Thor. I was only dimly aware that Thor was a thing.
As far as comic sales go, the Avengers family books were way far behind the sales of the 4-5 Spider-Man titles and the same number of X-Men books. The Punisher was a multiple book character for a long time. Outside of The Hulk, none of the other main Avengers were known outside of comic circles, and even comic fans weren’t really snapping up those books in bunches.
fits the narrative…remember these guys were nobodies until feige put them on screen *eyeroll*
They were not on the same level as Spider-Man, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, i.e., the ones having movies already made.
I upvote you for your persistence
wonder if they just Macro’d that one and hit reply all. =)
Nah, I just went old-school and Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V’d.
On the other hand, there were also Daredevil and Blade movies. Those couldn’t have been safe bets the way X-Men and Spider-Man were. Even the Fantastic Four had about the same level of representation as Iron Man (ie, cartoon canceled after 2 seasons, limited run of action figures, no representation in video game). I guess there’s four of them with easily defined, instantly recognizable powers.
Those are good points. The Fantastic Four has always been the “First Family” of Marvel, so at least there was strong internal support for their movies, as well as being an ensemble picture similar to X-Men.
“Deep bench” is definitely the wrong term, but The Avengers were always B-listers compared to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spiderman.
Exactly the X Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four had animated series in the 90’s. They were pretty popular. If people never picked up a comic they might have watched the shows and knew who the characters were.
Marvel was in dire financial straits in the ‘90s. The entire rights debacle with Fox and Sony is a result of them selling off the film rights to their most financially successful franchises so they could keep afloat. Sony didn’t even want the rest of the franchises proposed alongside Spider-Man because they figured promoting them would require more resources than they were worth, particularly after a bunch of superhero shit in the ‘90s failed.And many forget this, but Iron Man was a gamble. RDJ was basically impossible to insure and his career was barely back on track. Favreau was an unexpected and risky choice, because while his directorial output was decent, basically no one saw Zathura and he was mostly known as the Swingers dude. The script was written on the fly and almost all dialogue was improvised. Iron Man wasn’t a no name character, but he wasn’t as big as Spidey or the X-Men and before the movie came out, his last big arc was fucking Civil War.
They were not on the same level as Spider-Man, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, i.e., the ones having movies already made.
Right? And the iconic team of Wonder-Man and the Beast?
Man, those characters played well off of each other.
They’ve been teasing Fillion for Wonder-Man. If we don’t get it, I say we riot.
1) It really bothers me when people say ‘Iron Man one’ or ‘Thor one’ in reference to the first film in a franchise or series. There is no movie called Iron Man one. It’s just Iron Man. Say Iron Man. Say it, goddamn you.2) Kevin Feige is the shit. One of us.
Are you sure it wasn’t just “You see that money thing you like? Would you like some more of it?”
we had to prove that those characters were interestingThat’s the lesson here. Any character can be interesting if well written and put in a well crafted movie. Who didn’t roll their eyes initially at Groot and Rocket? Who thought they’d ever care about Captain America? Good job Marvel Films!
I’ve said this before, but I like annoying you people with my repetitive thoughts, so I’ll say it again….I think Feige’s biggest achievement with the MCU is getting all of these huge stars and huge egos – in front of the camera and behind it – and convincing all of them to give a damn about the entire endeavor. There have been big stars in genre movies before, of course, and plenty of those stars have given great performances. But it’s striking in watching, say, Infinity War to see just how much everyone involved clearly cares. You have Oscar winners on screen, and no one is phoning in a performance, no one rolls their eyes at the comic book trappings – I have no idea how Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen keep a straight face having to do their elaborate hand gestures with no visual feedback. I’m sure there are people involved who are just their for the paycheck, as there are in any job, but they don’t advertise that fact. It really feels like the people involved respect the stories they’re telling and they respect the audience instead of sneering at the Comic Book People. That means a lot to me, I have to admit.
I think Feige’s biggest achievement with the MCU is getting all of these huge stars and huge egos And — knowing when one or more of his actors isn’t going to mesh with the rest of the ensemble. I’m thinking mainly of Edward Norton, who evidently said to anyone who would listen that he wanted to be more involved with the MCU films, that he wanted to have a hand in the writing or directing etc. Well, and no, I don’t particularly like him as an actor, but even objectively, that just wasn’t going to work. For better or worse the MCU has a (relatively) homogenized look and direction, and that wouldn’t hold up with Norton or any of the actors deciding they deserve a bigger say in that.
Seems fairly apparent from the social media back and forth between them (and in interviews too) that this is a group of actors who enjoy each others company and enjoy working with each other. It’s always easier spending work time with people you’d choose to spend free time with too.
The whole thing has been very, very well managed.
Well, Norton wants to be more involved and controlling in every film he works on. Inarritu said that he’s the same on set as his character in Birdman. When they were filming his introductory scene where he tries to wag Keaton into doing what he thinks will be best, he was doing the same to Inarritu. He didn’t realize the irony until someone pointed that out.
Yeah, I’m glad that there are zero Harrison “Get Me Out Of Here Already” Fords to bring down the press junkets with their inability to enjoy the material.
It’s quite an achievement, and there was resistance. Chris Evans was famously very reluctant to sign away several years of his life, especially after the fiasco of the Fantastic Four films. Now can you imagine anyone else playing the role?
Have you seen Cumberbatch doing Smaug? Doing that without laughing must have been much more difficult. Also from what I’ve seen of him, I feel like he builds his characters very much around their physicality, choosing how they move and how they talk first.
“She likes to make her own costumes and a lot of them involve versions of cats.”Side note: Cat Thor is a thing in the comics.
My girlfriend’s daughter dressed as a cat spider dragon butterfly princess for Halloween last year because of course she did. She’s 7.
the real issue would have been if she didn’t.
God, I miss the days when children were treated like furniture.
I don’t want to see her costume. I want to see the drawing she did to help explain what the costume should look like.
We took her to the thrift store to pick out stuff for it, and it was like a being on a day trip with the schizophrenia ward at Bellevue. Good fun.
Sounds like you have a hell of a great kid. Keep encouraging her to be creative and weird. Those are the folk that change the world.
She’s not mine (my girlfriend’s from a previous relationship), but yeah, she’s pretty rad. Bit of a ding-dong, but I don’t want to meet an eight-year-old who isn’t a ding-dong.
“That will be many signs that that’s a success if you have people of all types and all colors dressing up as that character.” By “that” Kevin Feige meant Captain America: Civil War, and by “that character” he meant his little girl dressing up as the Black Panther … but has anyone noticed how many more people are cosplaying as Cap these days? And to think that just ten years ago Cap was a B-lister nobody took seriously.
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige on how he convinced everyone The Avengers matteredI’m sure we all remember that post-credits scene in the 2007 movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer where Feige shows up at the home of a depressed studio executive and tells him about a superhero franchise that has a chance not to be a disastrous flop.“I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers IP.”
“You’re part of a bigger universe, you’re just too incompetent to capitalise on it.”
“It only now occurs to me that maybe she thought it was a cat.” Lol
People complain about how the Marvel movies don’t really allow for distinct directors, but isn’t it fair to say that they’re still auteur-driven, only that Feige is the brainchild behind the whole endeavor? I appreciate that movie buffs see directors are being the true author of a film, but there’s definitely precedent for it being a producer’s medium, back in the Golden Era/Studio Era. Feige could be the closest thing we have to a modern-day Selznick.
There was also the producer guy behind MGM musicals, Arthur Freed, who established a style for the MGM musicals, but allowed directors like Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen, and Gene Kelly apply their own vision to particular movies. Of course, not all the directors working for Freed were as good as Minnelli. And, not all the directors behind the Marvel movies will be great, true auteurs. We should also examine the genres and sub-genres.
Hell, potentially even more impressive is that that’s true, but in a way that’s still flexible enough to allow the absurdist fantasy worlds of Guardians and Ragnarok to coexist comfortably with a grittier thriller like Winter Soldier. Compare to the unifying presence in the DCEU (Snyder), which every one of those films, including an otherwise decent one like Wonder Woman, clearly suffers rather than benefits from.
From what I’ve read, I always got the impression that Feige has a pretty good vision of the big picture, then surrounds himself with quality people, and doesn’t micromanage. They have made a few casting changes, and a few behind the scene changes (Edgar wright the most notable). Favreau had voiced some displeasure with the studio after Iron Man 2, but he’s obviously stayed involved in some capacity.
Jon Favreau probably deserves more credit for the tone and aesthetic of the franchise. A lot of Marvel’s “house style” shows up in Iron Man, especially the tossed-off zingers and the overtly “sunny” lighting and palette. Also shiny chrome – lots of shiny chrome. Even the much-ballyhooed “gritty” aesthetic of the Captain America movies are just a reaction to all that sunny, shiny chrome.That said, I guess it was Feige’s job to hire Favreau and then keep the subsequent movies on-model.
Really? That is a criticism? I mean early Marvel that was fair as they had a samesy feel to them. However later on we’ve got some gems. Thor Ragnarok comes to mind as that is a distinctly Taika Waititi film which is independent to the brand of humor you see in Guardians of the Galaxy I & II which clearly have James Gunns mark. Then the Russo’s themselves have a very distinct style that shines through in all their films but especially The Winter Soldier. Also Black Panther has the same flare and beautiful shot composition and stylstic action that Ryan Coogler brought to Creed.
Not sure auteur-driven is the right word. It is definitely franchise driven, but the directors all have put their stamp on it. Iron Man feels like a Favreau movie. Downey is playing Stark as if he was playing Vince Vaughn. Iron Man 3 definitely feels like a Shane Black movie. Avengers like a Whedon movie. Cap 1 like a Johnston nostalgic throwback. Even the Ant-Man movies made by generally non-distinct from a style perspective Peyton Reed feels like a Reed movie. He comes from rom-coms and they definitely have that Benedict and Beatrice “merry war” vibe.
Feige’s vision was a series of movies that fit together like a puzzle. The problem is that all of those pieces have to interlock in a certain way for the puzzle to work. The middle of each piece is where the director and writers have their freedom, but they can’t control the overall shape. There still has to be the bulbous extrusion part of the puzzle at the top and the bulbous notches on the side so they can connect to the other pieces. My take on the problems encountered in AoU by Whedon and Ant-Man by Wright is that they wanted to do things like make their piece a triangle or rhombus that would have made them a bad fit for the rest of the puzzle. I’m sure whatever their visions were for those respective films would have been great, but in the end everything still needed to snap right in to the rest of the puzzle.
Going by what Wright has said, and what information we had on why he left, I don’t think that was the case. He talked about being aware he had to fit in with the broader MCU. The far bigger problem seemed to be that Marvel wanted their own writers to overhaul the script less than a month before shooting…and Wright must’ve realized that Marvel would want far more flexibility during shooing and editing than he was comfortable with.Because Wright famously doesn’t do improv on his sets, and tries to stick closely to the script throughout filming and editing. So having the script be in a state of flux during production (and post) would’ve been a much bigger issue to him.
The irony here is that it was Edgar who suggested making the MCU films connected.
No, it’s not fair to say they’re “auteur-driven”, because they aren’t, and everyone knows Marvel Studios doesn’t like directors’ voices coming through because a bunch of directors have explained at length what a tedious bullshit process it is to make a movie for them, to have a studio dictate your movie to you and then turn around and re-edit it into something different from that anyway.Beyond that, comparing Feige to Selznick is something you slapped on at the end because you can’t possibly hope to defend such an absurd statement and you’re hoping no one knows Selznick’s name any better than you do.
Feige had the right idea and fortunately the ever-increasing box office receipts of the MCU. There are effects shots in the recent films that you know are fake but they just don’t look it (as opposed to some clunky stuff in Iron Man 2, to name an example). Feige and company know where to spend the money, and that effects should serve the story, not just be something to say “oh wow” at.[Back when Arthur C. Clarke was alive, he said in an interview that Childhood’s End could be made into a movie. But he was reluctant to sign off because he knew that the technology had to catch up so that key scenes wouldn’t look hokey or otherwise dumb. He was right – any time before the 2010s (heh) it could have looked ridiculous. It was made into a movie (tv show actually) and — I haven’t seen it. I will eventually, and no matter how it is am pretty sure that the Overlords won’t look like Alf.]
Dude. You’re a grown ass millionaire. Lose the hat. Everyone knows you’re bald, and no one cares.
Or, let him be as comfortable in his own skin as he wants to be.
God forbid people dress the way they want to.
21 incredibly beloved—and profitable—films
The AV Club morphed into Marvel Studios’ PR department so gradually I barely noticed.
Yeah, I still remember when I dreamed about an Ironman or Captain America movie, and there were comments that they would never get made because people don’t know them as they know Superman, Batman or Spiderman.
there were comments that they would never get made because people don’t know them as they know Superman, Batman or Spiderman.Like from this moron.
Just when I thought I couldn’t dislike that fucker more…
You can *imagine* him being kind. We don’t intend to show it mind you!
I refuse to read this because I don’t want to figure out what’s happening next. But he did a great job. Avengers
You can read it. It’s almost exclusively about what’s already out there, and even then it’s mostly the very beginnings of the MCU. He gives a vague idea of the degree to which he’s planned out the future. He names no characters or movies beyond 2019 and definitely doesn’t discuss the plot of the next two movies. Hell, he talks about his daughter more than he does Endgame.But if you’re on an MCU talk embargo just in general, I get it. Having little to no information about something you’re excited about definitely makes the wait easier to bear.
God, how I wish Lucasfilm had someone this passionate, driven, and versed in the material to run their Star Wars films!God, how I wish CBS and Paramount had someone this passionate, driven, and versed in the material to run their Star Trek films and shows!God, how I wish Warner Bros had someone this passionate, driven, and versed in the material to run their DC comics films!God, how I wish Paramount had someone this passionate, driven, and versed in the material to run their Transformers films!God, how I wish Disney had someone this passionate, driven, and competent to run their Pirates of the Caribbean films!It’s almost like all of Hollywood sucks.
This guy’s a true expert at talking enough for an entire interview without saying anything new.
I watched ‘Iron Man’ again last night – after we saw ‘Endgame’, my girlfriend suggested we could run the series again – and it’s interesting to see what the franchise has kept and what’s less emphasised these days. Favreau clearly thought we’d all be fascinated by Tony Stark, panty-dropper, and there’s lots of focus on his billionaire lifestyle. It’s very slick and superficial, with only a few moments of introspection, and then only for Tony, not the support cast. I think it took a couple of movies for Marvel to realise people liked these characters the more human they were.