Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, has discussed how Star Wars has influenced him and his company.
Star Wars, of course, has tremendous influence. With the films spanning back decades and being such cultural touchstones for so many, it’s not surprising that such a great number of people in the business of making movies today have been influenced by them.
One person who has been influenced by Star Wars is Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios. Feige recently spoke with The Star Wars Show about how the franchise impacted him and his work with the MCU, as well as how he was infatuated with the Star Wars sourcebook for role-playing games:
“I read it from cover to cover and it was a wealth of new information,” Feige said. “And one of the great things about Star Wars and one thing that I think is great about the Marvel characters from the comics and what we try to emulate in the movies is if you’re the kind of person that wants to go see it on opening weekend, our job is to make sure you have a great time.
“If you want to see it a second time, our job is to make sure there’s more there. Third, fourth, fifth time, still more there. And even the deeper you go, there’ll be things to reward you. And I learned that directly from Star Wars and from those West End Sourcebooks.”
Feige also went on to discuss the Lucasfilm Story Group, who are in charge of canon for the franchise. Feige talked about how the MCU has a similar team:
“We have the core group of filmmakers of the executive producer teams. Again, we’ve been together for almost ten years,” Feige said. “And it’s a little internal group that for various reasons we call Parliament. At the least of which is we often yell at each other across tables. And keeping track of that is not as complicated I think for us as it is for Star Wars. We’ve got ten years, Star Wars has got like 40 plus years. But it really comes out of each individual film and what’s best for each individual story that we’re telling but it is the core group of filmmakers that work on all these movies that keep track of all that.”
Such a similar working procedure is perhaps little surprise considering both franchises are under the Disney umbrella.
