Though there’s a fierce divide between Marvel and DC for fans, MCU producer Kevin Feige has always been diplomatic about the rivalry between Marvel Studios and the DC Extended Universe, asking superhero movie viewers to stop the in-fighting and just enjoy all the comic book entertainment that’s out there.
Likewise, it seems he doesn’t feel it’s his job to give advice to the filmmakers of the DCEU, despite the Marvel Cinematic Universe proving much more reliably successful than Warner Bros.’ franchise. When pushed by Screen Rant to give some pointers to new DCEU head Walter Hamada, though, Feige only had to say that he would suggest going back to the very first DC movie of the lot, Richard Donner’s iconic Superman from 1978.
“I always hesitate to come off as the person who is bestowing advice on people. It’s not really what I do. What I do know is, they’re great characters… They’re great characters, they’re good comics, they’ve got great history. I’m not shy about saying, Richard Donner’s Superman I still think is the paradigm by which we all still should follow. It’s all there.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Feige highly rates Superman. He’s of the age to remember when Christopher Reeve was the only superhero on the cinema screens, for one, and the influence of the bright, bold tone of the movie can definitely be seen in the films of the MCU.
To be fair to the DCEU though, going back to something akin to Donner’s Superman is clearly an idea that’s going around behind the scenes already. Both Justice League and Wonder Woman featured several homages to the film – the latter even dropped a nod to John Williams’ classic theme.
Of course, Feige offered some similar advice last year as well when asked what he would do with the DCEU. He suggested at the time that the studio should put the importance of making individual films first before setting up a wider universe. Again, this is apparently something that was decided by WB recently, as producer Toby Emmerich says the franchise is now working on making “good movies” first and foremost. And we’ll get to see if he’s right when Aquaman hits later this year.
