Yesterday we brought you some comments from Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon about the eagerly-anticipated 2015 sequel, which came from the latest issue of Empire Magazine. Within the pages, Marvel chief Kevin Feige also offered up a host of info on virtually the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Avengers sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and the big showdown between Captain America 3 and Warner Bros.’ Batman vs. Superman. Here’s what he had to say:
On Avengers: Age of Ultron and the Hulk vs. Hulkbuster Iron Man concept art: “That little tease was very intentional on our part. We found it a very compelling image to throw out there. The specifics around it we don’t have to do for a while. It’s a piece of armour we’ve wanted to see on screen for a long time, let’s put it that way. What is the Hulkbuster suit built for?”
On Guardians of the Galaxy and its place within the MCU: “Guardians will feel and seem the most separate. But in a summer where people are going to see a lot of sequels, some of which are ours, and a lot of reboots and familiar faces, we were excited about the idea of bringing something new and totall unexpected to the screen.”
And on the casting of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy: “There is an actor. I’m not sure we want to announce it yet.”
On the reason for Hank Pym’s absence from Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the resulting change to Ultron’s origin story: “”It was two things – a story Edgar Wright wanted to tell [in Ant-Man] that we’ll see with Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd, and now we’re 11 films in, it’s looking at the characters we’ve already introduced who already have the technology and the brains to do…certain things [Laughs].”
On the long-gestating Ant-Man, and its impact on previous Marvel Studios movies: “We changed, frankly some of the MCU to accommodate this version of Ant-Man. Knowing what we wanted to do with Edgar and with Ant-Man, going years and years back, helped to dictate what we did with the roster for Avengers the first time. It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to Avengers.”
On the still-yet-to-be-officially -confirmed Doctor Strange: “There’s a whole other side to the Marvel universe, which is the supernatural side. We’ve always been very interested in this aspect and this is going back to the early days of Strange Tales with Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. I love that stuff. We haven’t done anything that mind-trippy yet and for me, Doctor Strange is our doorway into that.”
And finally, on Marvel’s decision not to back down from its Captain America 3 release date following Warner’s decision to move Batman vs. Superman to the same slot: “We had the flag there first. What other people do and where has always been less of our concern. It’s about keeping our head down and doing what we would believe would be cool for an audience to see.”
For more from Feige, be sure to pick up the latest issue of Empire.
Originally published April 25, 2014. Updated December 13, 2019.
