With the MCU coming off of a very rocky year, would Kevin Feige ever consider leaving Marvel and stepping away from the universe that he built?
As far as years go, 2023 was not Marvel Studios’ most successful spin around the sun. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania drastically underperformed, Secret Invasion was met with severe backlash, and The Marvels is on track to become one of the biggest box office bombs in history.
Even with a great many MCU movies and shows still in the pipeline for future release, faith in the Marvel brand seems to be at a record low. This has prompted some segments of the audience to question whether studio boss Kevin Feige would ever step down.
Kevin Feige's Future at Marvel
Joanna Robinson, insider and co-author of the recent Marvel Studios tell-all book, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios was a recent guest on Matthew Belloni’s podcast The Town.
During her interview, she was asked how much longer she thought Marvel Studios president and chief creative officer Kevin Feige wants to do his job. Robinson responded that the place where Feige wants to be is “making movies:”
”I don’t know, because for a time, I was wondering if he would want to take over Disney In the ongoing [Bob] Iger succession question. No, but absolutely not, right? Because he wants to make movies. Like, whatever he does, he wants to directly have his hand in making movies.”
Belloni interjected, remarking that he ”could see [Feige] taking over Lucasfilm,” although Robinson actually agreed with that comment:
”That’s what I’m saying. He could take over Lucasfilm because he is more of a Star Wars guy than he is a comic book guy. So, like, if a vacancy opens up at Lucasfilm…”
At that point in the conversation, Belloni chimed in again, asserting that they were not making any sort of suggestion that current Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy should step down from her role and then immediately contradicting himself.
While she could see Kevin Feige possibly making the jump to Star Wars if the opportunity were to present itself, she feels it’s far more probable that he stays put at Marvel Studios.
“If Kathy is tired and they can blame her for that, then that is something that I think Kevin would want to do, but other than that, I think he sticks with the empire that he built.”
This comes amidst reports that Feige has been spread quite thin across the MCU’s many entries in recent years, even while he hasn’t been involved as heavily as he used to be in day-to-day operations.
How Can Marvel Fix Its Issues?
The general consensus is that in order for the MCU to level out after a string of particularly uneven releases, they need to slow down considerably and focus on quality over quantity.
Despite The Marvels’ extremely weak run at the box office, many agree that it’s a fun, funny movie with a lot to like. It just happened to come out in the middle of a perfect storm caused by waning Marvel interest, a finicky general audience, and the fact that the film’s stars couldn’t promote it due to the actors’ strike.
Nevertheless, it bombed. Badly. But the MCU still has a lot of spark left in it. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was highly critically acclaimed and Loki Season 2 raked in the accolades as well.
Marvel Studios can and very likely will turn things around for itself. Its next tentpole film Deadpool 3 feels like it’s on track to be a hit. Fans love Ryan Reynolds’ take on the wisecracking Merc with a Mouth, and Hugh Jackman will be along for the ride as his iconic Wolverine.
As much as it is a mistake for comic book evildoers to assume they can best Marvel’s roster of heroes, it would be an equal error to count out Marvel Studios as they begin the process of course-correcting.
