If there’s one person who’s been integral to the unprecedented success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. The producer, who began his career as an associate producer on X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002), has overseen the MCU’s rapid ascent from pipe dream to the biggest movie franchise of all time (by a considerable margin).
However, according to Hulk star Mark Ruffalo, things may have been very different, as Feige almost walked away from Marvel Studios during production on The Avengers after clashing with Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter over issues of diversity and representation.
“When we did the first Avengers, Kevin Feige told me, ‘Listen, I might not be here tomorrow.’ And he’s like, ‘Ike does not believe that anyone will go to a female-starring super movie.’ So if I am still here tomorrow you will know that I won that battle,’” Ruffalo told The Independent.
“That was the turning point for Marvel,” he continued. “Because Kevin wanted black superheroes, women superheroes, LGBT superheroes. He changed the whole Marvel universe. We now have gay superheroes, we have black superheroes, we have female superheroes – Scarlett Johansson has her movie coming out, we have Captain Marvel, they are doing She-Hulk next. No other studio is being that forwardly inclusive on that level.”
As well as that victory, Feige would find himself reportedly directly to Disney rather than Perlmutter after a restructuring in 2015, and he has since been named Chief Creative Officer of all of Marvel’s publishing, including its film and newly-rebranded television division, Marvel TV Studios.
And with $22.5 billion in the bank and the MCU a core part of the Disney+ strategy, it certainly seems that Disney backed the right horse.
