Much digital ink has been spilled over Kevin Feige and his instrumental role in the MCU (and for good reason!), but with Phase 3 set to culminate in Avengers 4 next year, one can’t help but wonder: beyond 2019, will the Marvel Studios president consider handing over the baton?
Amid talk of superhero fatigue and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther movie, Kevin Feige addressed that very question – along with his current contract with the studio – during an extensive interview with Vulture.
With so many projects in the pipeline – from Ant-Man and the Wasp to Captain Marvel and everything in between – Feige was understandably unwilling to part with any firm business plans, nor did he give any reason to suggest that his time with Marvel Studios is coming to an end. Instead, the MCU’s head honcho replied:
I think about it through 2019, through the movies we’ve already shot or are about to start filming. I’m hoping to deliver on everything we’ve promised thus far.
He’s firmly focused on the task at hand, then, which centers on a cinematic vision that first flickered into life with the release of Iron Man in 2008. And now, after almost a decade of superhero action, Kevin Feige believes the MCU’s continued success can be traced back to the sheer diversity of each new release – be it the cosmic thrills of Thor: Ragnarok or the coming-of-age story that underpins Spider-Man: Homecoming.
That’s the reason we make the movies we make and the way we make them. For years, predating the history of Marvel Studios itself, people asked me about superhero fatigue and if it was a fad or a phase. I say, if they’re all different, if they’re all special, nobody will get tired of these things before we at Marvel Studios will, since we live and breathe these things 24 hours a day. You make films like Thor: Ragnarok, like Homecoming, like Guardians of the Galaxy, certainly like Panther, and the upcoming Infinity War to keep it interesting and change it up. And we will continue to do that.
Next up for Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige is the launch of Black Panther, which has already set a new record in advance ticket sales. It’ll debut in theaters on February 16th, before all eyes turn toward Avengers: Infinity War ahead of its own release in May.
