With Marvel releasing so many films and shows a year, it’s easy to assume fans will get tired of all the comic book madness. But the man behind Marvel Studios feels like the stories are so good that fans will keep tuning in.
In an interview with The Movie Business Podcast, Marvel Studios President and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige dives into what it takes to keep the superhero business afloat, especially with massive releases a year.
Feige notes, “I’ve been at Marvel Studios for 22 years now, over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together. From probably my 2nd year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?’”
He adds that this doesn’t compute with what he sees, “I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after Gone With The Wind, ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?’”
The Marvel exec claims the key to 80 years of superhero entertainment is storytelling, which he feels is still as fresh as ever:
“There’re 80 years of the most interesting, emotional, groundbreaking stories that have been told in the Marvel comics, and it is our great privilege to be able to take what we have and adapt them. I found that if we tell the story right, and we adapt them in a way that the audience still knock on wood so far, is falling us along 22-plus years later with, that we can tell any types of movies that share two things.”
Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have quite a busy year ahead of them. Not only did they have four films lined-up, with the first one coming in less than a month. 2023 MCU movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels. Most of the Marvel projects come through Disney+ this year, with the planned releases including What If…?, Secret Invasion, Loki, Ironheart, Echo, and Agatha: Coven of Chaos.
Can the overstuffed Marvel 2023 slate be more than fans can handle? Let’s see if Feige feels the same at the end of the year as he does now.
In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania finds Peyton Reed returning to the director’s chair for the third time and stars Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne), Randall Park (Jimmy Woo), Corey Stoll (Darren Cross/Yellowjacket), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), Jonathan Majors (Kang the Conqueror), Bill Murray (Krylar), and William Jackson Harper.
