Marvel Boss Kevin Feige On Welcoming Indie Directors To The MCU

What’s the one thing Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler and Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Jon Watts have in common? You know, aside from being wonderfully talented directors who have now helmed one Marvel movie each…

You guessed it: Prior to their initial foray into the MCU, Waititi, Coogler, and Watts were known for micro-budget indies like What We Do in the Shadows, Fruitvale Station and, in the case of Watts, Cop Car, the white-knuckle ride starring Kevin Bacon of Tremors fame.

So it’s fair to say that Kevin Feige and the Powers That Be over at Marvel rolled the dice when hiring Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) and Jon Watts (Homecoming), though the sheer success of each movie proves that Feige’s decision was more of a calculated gamble, as he’s a big believer in welcoming indie directors onto the big stage. The secret? To surround those filmmakers with a bunch of talented people, as he told Deadline:

Find people who have unique points of views who have something to say and surround them with talented people.

And if the entire plan unravels? Then Kevin Feige would simply chalk it up as a lesson learned, though it’s fair to say that even after 19 movies in the space of 10 years, Marvel Studios hasn’t encountered many failures – not yet, at least…

Failure is an option to do things better. We’ve just had it on every film before they were released. We’ve had test screenings that are awful, even going back to our earlier movies, we’d (get responses) where we were like ‘Well, that was fun while it lasted.’ Our job is to get in and do whatever it takes.

Marvel‘s cinematic juggernaut is poised to go sub-atomic this summer with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp, before whisking viewers back to the ’90s with the retro-inspired Captain Marvel. Exciting times lie ahead, folks!