During Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we saw a lot of overlap between movies like Iron Man 2 and Thor. As a result, the events of these releases often took place at the same time, something which was arguably necessary when the studio was building up to The Avengers. However, since Phase 2, that’s changed. While we still get a lot of crossovers and references, each outing has a distinct, standalone feel, and in a new interview, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige shed some light on why they’ve ditched overlaps in their films.
“I think people like to talk about our long term plans, which we certainly have. But very rarely do those long term plans dictate the specificity of any individual film. It’s usually the opposite. It’s focusing on a story, and focusing on the individual movie that we’re making to do what’s best. And then, if something changes that we weren’t quite expecting down the line because it was made for a better movie, then we deal with it down the line. I think that’s what happened in Phase One. We were telling those stories and having the crossover of Nick Fury talking about the Southwest Region, when the hammer fell…”
Now that this world is established, it makes perfect sense that there’s no need to litter the movies with references and the like. Both fans and casual moviegoers are already well aware that these heroes all exist within the same shared space, so complicated overlaps which leave comic book readers forced to create detailed timelines to figure out what fits where just aren’t necessary anymore.
Of course, with Avengers: Infinity War right around the corner, Marvel is going to have to figure out how to combine the worlds of heroes like the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man in a way which makes sense, but something tells us that they’ll be able to pull it off with aplomb. After all, they haven’t failed us yet, right?
Published: Apr 28, 2017 12:54 pm