Why? Not specifically because of this quote:
“The notion of the characters coming back is great. It’s nice when a company that created all these characters can have access to all those characters. It’s unusual not to. But in terms of actually thinking about it and actually planning things, we haven’t started that yet.”
…with ‘that’ meaning “plotting out what to do with all the Fox Marvel characters once Disney acquires them with the rest of Fox at the end of January 2019.” Or maybe it is specifically about this quote. I just can’t help but wonder: when does Kevin Feige decide that he’s done what he came to do?
No, seriously. Feige came on board Marvel Studios in 2007, and by any reasonable expectation he’s… won. There are two movies yet to go, and it’s possible that the whole thing might still implode*, but the odds of either Captain Marvel or Avengers: Endgame being commercial failures is somewhere around nil. Honestly, Captain Marvel could be an unmitigated piece of junk and it would have the same box office effect on Avengers: Endgame that Thor: The Dark World ultimately had on Thor: Ragnarok. Which is to say, pretty much no effect at all.
But that doesn’t mean that the MCU won’t collapse. In fact, it will collapse. Eventually. Does Feige want to be the guy running the show when that happens? Particularly since it wouldn’t be exactly his fault: the longer these things go on, the more contradictions and compromises and the artistic drift piles up. The temptation must be strong for Feige to cash out his chips after Endgame. Put another way: the advice offered here in this video is pretty solid.
But whaddya I know?
Moe Lane
*There are a few people who would rather like this series to implode, actually.
There’s also the whole “I’ve been doing this job for a long time, and it’s time to do something else” angle. That’s something that both Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans have made clear that they’re both feeling. I’m sure that Feige loves what he’s done as the person in charge of the MCU. But sooner or later he’s going to grow tired of it and want to move on.
If he hasn’t already.
Twelve years is a long time to be working the same project in showbiz.
For the asterisk, I’m quite aware.
One of genre news sites I visit is infested with that strain of tribalist commenters that is all about “Marvel vs DC fanboys”. Every compliment for the opposing side gets a comment about the other being a lackey to their “favorite” and not being able to see anything wrong with it.
I confess I grew up leaning Marvel, but I’d rather have all of the studios make good stuff. Wonder Woman (and Aquaman, to a less extent) bucked the DC movie trend, and I liked Suicide Squad for specific reasons. (Really just Harley Quinn, but I also found Deadshot to be good enough)
I still remember the days of Catwoman and the Ghost Rider movies being the pinnacle of the comic book genres.
When Mr Feige does leave I will doff my metaphorical cap to him.