Kevin Feige is a name synonymous with the MCU. Acting as the principal producer on every entry right back to Iron Man, he’s guided the series from a moderate gamble on second-tier heroes to the most financially successful franchise in movie history. Despite this, it’s been revealed that his tenure as the saga’s overseer could have been over right as it got going, as a result of wanting to include female superheroes.
In an interview with The Independent, Mark Ruffalo, the MCU’s Bruce Banner, related a key moment in the series’ nascent development when Feige decided to speak to Disney about the issue of diversity.
“When we did the first Avengers, Kevin Feige told me, ‘Listen, I might not be here tomorrow. Ike [Isaac Perlmutter, then Disney’s largest shareholder and the of CEO of Marvel Entertainment] does not believe that anyone will go to a female-starring superhero movie. So if I am still here tomorrow, you will know that I won that battle’.”
Ruffalo didn’t specify whether Feige meant that he believed he would be fired for making the request or if he would resign if denied, but by whatever metric victory was measured, he must have attained it, as he’s still here and gradually ushering in change long overdue.
Ruffalo went on to specify how things changed as a result of Feige voicing his stance as well, saying:
“Because Kevin wanted black superheroes, women superheroes, LGBT superheroes, he changed the whole Marvel universe. We now have a gay superhero on the way, we have black superheroes, we have female superheroes. Scarlett Johansson has her movie coming out, we have Captain Marvel, they are doing She-Hulk next. No other studio is being that inclusive on that level. They have to, though. This is the fucking world.”
Despite the acknowledgment of the social development, there’s still some way to go. The MCU’s first openly gay character, seen in Avengers: Endgame, was an utterly inconsequential one acknowledged with a throwaway line, and before its OG female hero was given her own solo outing for which audiences were clamoring, it took a decade, twenty movies and the character’s irreversible death.
Now that diversity is being ushered in though, it will doubtless continue, and hopefully one day we can reach a point where adjectives specifying which marginalized community a hero represents will become unnecessary. But that isn’t going to happen for a long, long, long time.
