Kevin Feige Reveals His Favorite Thing About Marvel
As the stories, actors, and directors changed, the common link between all these Marvel films has been Kevin Feige.
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the gold standard of shared universes. While each movie’s story is told by different actors, writers, and directors, they all fit together perfectly – culminating in an epic phase-finale with films like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. As the stories, actors, and directors changed, the common link between all these films has been Kevin Feige.
In a new interview released by Sony Pictures, Kevin Feige shared his thoughts about Marvel and the creative process behind Spider-Man: No Way Home. He opened by revealing that the beginning of the creative process is his favorite part because that’s when the slate is at its cleanest. “Sitting in a room, in this case, it was a conference room at Marvel Studios, with the team is always my favorite part of the process, where anything is possible,” he said (via ComicBook).
The Oscar-nominated producer also described what this scene was like for Spider-Man: No Way Home. “We knew coming out of Far From Home that we didn’t want to shy away from the fact that his identity is now revealed. And that was always the starting point. With Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna, our director Jon Watts and Amy Pascal, we sat and just started brainstorming,” Feige said about Marvel’s latest offering. Feige continued to explain how they factored in Peter Parker’s personality into their process. “Peter Parker can handle a lot. But when he starts to see his friends being affected by his actions unfairly, that is emotionally draining for him. So that was always where it was early on, and the team at Marvel had a lot of fun discussions. It’s always discussing ‘You know what would be cool?’”
Kevin Feige’s tenure as President of Marvel Studios has seen a record-breaking string of hits, the highest-grossing film of all time (Avengers: Endgame), and a total franchise gross of almost $25 billion. The secret to his success is a genuine passion for the characters. Kevin Feige first stepped into the realm of superheroes as an associate producer on 2000’s X-Men, due to his knowledge of the Marvel Universe.
Over the years Kevin Feige gradually formulated plans for what would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe using the few superheroes the company still had the rights to. He created something new with The Avengers in 2012. The movie brought together different heroes from their own stories (Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor) into one big team-up movie.
When that was done the characters parted ways and went back to their own sequels. While each movie was not telling the same story, they all took place in the same universe and were connected by characters, events, and settings. This type of storytelling has always been done in the comics. But doing it across almost 30 films with so many strong characters and undertones was brand new. Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks a little different now, Kevin Feige is still heavily involved in planning the storylines.
Following its world premiere, Spider-Man: No Way Home is said to be exactly the Marvel movie everyone wants it to be. The story begins immediately after the events of its predecessor and examines how Peter Parker’s life and reputation are turned upside down following his identity being exposed at the hands of Mysterio. The film is directed by Jon Watts and stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker, Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange.
Reprising their roles from previous Spider-Man films are Tony Revolori as Eugene “Flash” Thompson, Parker’s classmate and rival, Angourie Rice as Betty Brant, Parker’s classmate and Leeds’ ex-girlfriend, and Hannibal Buress as Coach Wilson, Midtown School of Science and Technology’s gym teacher. Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently playing in theaters worldwide.
