In 1999, Bryan Singer began shooting a film that would change the course of cinematic history. The movie was X-Men. Singer was famously (or infamously) not a fan of the comics and strove to create something that was more grounded and less fantastical, and forbade anyone on set from bringing any comics.
There was one man who defied him. A young, ballcap wearing assistant producer named Kevin Feige, who would sneak “Wolverine” actor and future franchise star Hugh Jackman comics and even fought Singer to keep a scene where Jackman- true to the character- calls someone “bub”.
This story is practically Hollywood legend by now, and is indicative of the future that was to come for the assistant producer, who quickly rose to co-producer for the sequel, X2 and subsequently an executive producer on the third film, The Last Stand.
Almost two decades later, Feige became so successful at making Marvel movies that he led the fledgling Marvel Studios into the greatest box office run in history, making him the highest-grossing producer of all time. In 2009 the Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Studios for $4 billion, and after a decade of Feige-produced hits they were in a position to buy out the entirety of 20th Century Fox Studios.
Feige- who once fought just to give Hugh Jackman a comic-accurate haircut- was now the “Bruce Wayne” of the producing world.
However, like any successful person, business, or entity, it’s only a matter of time before chinks begin to appear in the armor.
Even Kevin Feige, the most powerful man in Tinseltown, is still subject to dramatic exits and entrances of leadership, something that has plagued Walt Disney Studios since the death of its beloved founder. Under Bob Chapek, all film divisions reported to an intermediary instead of reporting straight to the top, and it’s clear from the slate that got put out that Feige began to have increasingly less control over the final product.
Upon Iger’s return, Feige now reports directly to him and based on this year’s Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four the quality difference from what came before is notable, but the world still wonders if superhero fatigue hasn’t done this whole enterprise in. It may end up being that, once again, it’s up to Wolverine and the X-Men to save the day.
All eyes are now on Avengers: Doomsday to see if Marvel still has it, but predictions on that front will be for the tail end of this series.
With this series my friend Kevin (our video essayist supreme) and I will be exploring:
Why the MCU succeeded where previous Marvel entries didn’t
Why the firing of James Gunn and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox had disastrous effects on the overall storyline post-Endgame
How Feige’s methods running the studio are actually extremely similar to Old Hollywood methods
How I would have planned out the MCU post-Endgame, and how it could still be saved
Hope you enjoy this new series, and if you have suggestions on specific movies or topics within the MCU that you want to see covered, sound off in the comments below!
I’ll be interested to watch the series, but I’m not convinced the decline in MCU quality was because Kevin Feige had less direct control. The movies that put the MCU in its current position - especially “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “The Eternals,” and “The Marvels” - were ones Bob Iger approved during his first tenure, and that Feige was presumably on board with. And the roots of the MCU’s current problems - its over-reliance on humor, its embrace of “current year” political cliches, and its attempt to replace the original Avengers with unpopular legacy characters from the comics - go back even further than that.
i’m hyped for this new series y’all are working on 🙌. lmk what ya think abt this and feel free to address in the series: i personally hold a special place in my heart for “The Avengers” (2012). at the same time, my fav ensemble “Avengers” project has to be “Infinity War.” “Endgame” was alright and “Age of Ultron” was honestly my least fav and the most forgettable. ofc everyone will have a different ranking system for these ensemble films but i have a feeling that the leading creative decision makers of this franchise have often been quick to change course based on how these flagstaff projects perform at the box office. have y’all also observed that to be the case or is it a bit more complicated than that?