Ahead of The Walt Disney Co.’s 100th anniversary on October 16, Variety caught up with executives and filmmakers from across its vast creative empire, including Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios.
Disney’s purchase of Marvel opened the door to live-action blockbusters, including 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame’, the second highest grossing film of all time. And while some may bemoan superhero saturation, it’s important to remember what a risk it was to build a cinematic universe around comic book characters when “Iron Man”, the first Marvel Studios film, premiered.
Fifteen years, 31 films, 25 TV shows and nearly $30 billion later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been imitated many times, but none as successfully.
From the start, it’s been led by Kevin Feige, CCO of Marvel Entertainment and president of Marvel Studios, whose first producing credit was as an associate producer on 2000’s ‘X-Men’ – and who is now coming full circle by bringing Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back into the fold with next year’s ‘Deadpool 3’.
After all this time, Feige says he remains as enthusiastic as the day he started.
“I feel so lucky to be able to do this job,” Feige tells Variety. “Every costume fitting, when we see the actors transform for the first time, there’s always this moment of awe. It’s so incredible to take these characters and bring them to life on screen.
The franchise has launched the careers of Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans, made stars out of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, and even given Oscar-winning actors like Ben Kingsley, Brie Larson and Lupita Nyong’o a place to let their hair down.
While so much has happened on screen, Feige notes that there are some things that never change.
“We have a tradition at Marvel Studios that started with the very first Iron Man. For every new release, the cast, producers, director and I will go to an opening night screening and watch the film with the fans. Feeling the excitement in the theatre, hearing the cheers or gasps from the audience is always a reminder of what these films and characters mean to the fans,” he says. “Being there on the opening night of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and hearing the crowd is something I’ll never forget. Also the feedback we got after ‘Black Panther’ came out. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would have the kind of impact it did.
With ‘The Marvels’ soon to be released in cinemas and the second season of ‘Loki’ on Disney+, there seems to be no sign of a slowdown.
“The great thing about Marvel is really how many wonderful, interesting characters we have in the comics – they’ve been around for 85 years. Even after 32 films, it feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface,” said Feige.
