Almost two decades into the MCU, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige admitted he went wrong in five major ways. Feige has been the mastermind behind the MCU since day one, serving as an executive producer on every project while helping to orchestrate the larger slate and storyline. That endeavor earned Feige praise from fans and across Hollywood for over a decade through the Infinity Saga up to Avengers: Endgame, since which the MCU has faced some difficulties.
For the most part, the MCU was smooth sailing until 2019, but endured backlash through Phases 4 and 5 as many Multiverse Saga projects suffered mixed or poor reactions, resulting in diminishing returns and viewership. Still, Feige has persevered to get his Hollywood baby back on track and to land the Multiverse Saga with a bang, which looks increasingly possible after Avengers: Doomsday's latest trailer drew an immense reaction at CinemaCon.
But that's not to say that Marvel Studios hasn't made some fumbles since its inception with 2008's Iron Man, and even Feige himself has admitted regrets...
Kevin Feige's 5 Regrets In the MCU's 18-Year History
Dying Chris Hemsworth's Eyebrows (Yes, Really)
In an interview with Uproxx (via CinemaBlend), Kevin Feige revealed that, in hindsight, he wouldn't have "dyed Chris Hemsworth's eyebrows blonde" to play the Odinson in 2011's Thor. The MCU's founding father noted that the decision was made to replicate the Asgardian's comic appearance as closely as possible.
"I'll tell you one specific example I just thought of today, and I laugh at it. Definitely, the one thing I would definitely do differently if I had to do it over again, is we would not have dyed Chris Hemsworth's eyebrows blonde in the first 'Thor'. Because we were like, Thor is blonde! He has to be blond!"
Given how successfully Hemsworth has embodied Thor, from his personality to his physicality, Feige dubbed it "ridiculous" that they forced him to dye his eyebrows. He made it clear that minor cosmetic tweaks were unnecessary to transform the Australian star into the MCU's God of Thunder:
"And Hemsworth was great and awesome and pulled it off, but there are a couple of shots I watch, and I'm like, oh my God, that poor guy, we made him freaking dye his eyebrows! That's ridiculous! And I can laugh about it now because Hemsworth is Thor, and he doesn't need long hair, or a cape, or a hammer, or two eyeballs to be Thor."
Tilda Swinton's Doctor Strange Casting
Marvel Studios made a controversial decision when introducing Doctor Strange's mentor, the Ancient One, for his 2016 solo outing. The character was both gender and race-swapped for the MCU, abandoning his portrayal as an elderly Tibetan man to cast Tilda Swinton, a white British woman, in the role.
Kevin Feige explained to Men's Health that they felt they were being "smart and so cutting-edge" by ignoring the "cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man" and casting Swinton, but he has gone on to realize there were other paths:
"We thought we were being so smart and so cutting-edge. We're not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes."
Director Scott Derrickson explained the controversial casting decision in a 2016 interview with The Daily Beast, explaining his concerns to be "contributing to a bad stereotype" of the old, mystical Asian mentor figure:
"We talked about Asian actors who could do it... but when I envisioned that character being played by an Asian actress, it was a straight-up Dragon Lady. I know the history of cinema and the portrayal of the Dragon Lady in Anna May Wong films, and the continued stereotype throughout film history and even more in television... I really felt like I was going to be contributing to a bad stereotype."
Holding Back Avengers: Endgame's Official Title
While Avengers 3 and 4 were originally announced as Infinity War - Part 1 and 2, plans quickly shifted behind the scenes. Marvel Studios confirmed that the two movies, despite shooting back-to-back, would no longer be branded as two parts, with Avengers 4's true title being preserved for spoilery reasons.
As fans began to speculate that Avengers 4 could be called everything from Annihilation to Forever, Feige told IGN at an Infinity War press day that the decision to hold back the title had "backfired." He admitted that the theories left "no chance of living up to any expectations" and took focus off Infinity War:
"I've said before, it's gotten entirely out of hand. And now will have no chance to living up to any expectations of what it's gonna be. And it sort of backfired, if I'm honest with you, because the notion was to not talk about it so the focus was to be on [Infinity War]."
The MCU boss justified his conclusion that Endgame's title was a spoiler for Infinity War in an interview with Collider. He explained how the term Endgame makes it clear that "there wasn't an ending" to Infinity War and that the story would continue the following year, although most had already sussed that out:
"Well, I think I'd said that it all had gotten blown out of proportion to some extent. But it was a spoiler, because if you knew before Infinity War came out that the next movie was called Endgame, then you know that there wasn't an ending to Infinity War. But that had been the title of the movie from the moment we conceived of doing the two films. In large part, because...it's seeded right there. I mean, it's seeded in Ultron."
Going All-In On Disney+ Series Too Soon
In the days of Phases 4 and 5, Marvel Studios was handing out Disney+ series like they were going out of fashion, committing resources to spin-off series for characters like Echo, Agatha Harkness, Nick Fury, and Ironheart at a time when fans were just eager to see the Fantastic Four and X-Men finally in the MCU.
There's no doubt that the result was a mixed bag of quality, as shows like She-Hulk, Secret Invasion, and What If...? faced major criticism.
Feige admitted to Variety last July, around The Fantastic Four: First Steps' release, that the jump from 50 hours of content in the Infinity Saga to over 100 hours by the start of Phase 6 in the Multiverse Saga was simply "too much."
The Marvel Studios President singled out the "expansion" onto Disney+ and how that created a scenario where MCU content was seen as homework to many:
"What we also ended up focusing on because of Disney+ was expansion — and it’s that expansion that I think led people to say, ‘It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?’"
He explained that it created a scenario where "quantity trumped quality" for the first time in the MCU's history due to a mandate from the higher-ups at Disney to make more content, especially for the streaming service:
"For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality. We spent 12 years working on the Infinity Saga, saying that’s never going to happen to us. We always had more characters than we could possibly make because we weren’t going to make a movie a month. Suddenly, there’s a mandate to make more. And we go, ‘Well, we do have more.’"
Blade's Early Announcement
Upon announcing the MCU's Phase 4 slate at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Kevin Feige ended with one last announcement: Mahershala Ali's casting as Blade and the news that he will lead his own blockbuster movie. One pandemic later, the Phase 4 slate was complete by November 2022, and yet, almost seven years after its announcement, Blade looks no closer to landing in theaters.
Last year, Feige admitted in front of a room full of journalists, including Variety, that, "in hindsight," he regrets announcing Blade so early since the project has gone on to lose multiple directors and writers, leading to delays:
"Only in hindsight, I do. But I don’t. Because that’s the way we’d announced everything before, like that and had not not delivered."
That said, even after years of setbacks, he was clear that Mahershala Ali, now 52, is "still attached" to play the MCU's Blade. The update followed former Blade actor Wesley Snipes' joke in Deadpool & Wolverine that "there's only ever gonna be one Blade," which increasingly seems all too real.
Sadly, even after Ali made his MCU debut with a vocal cameo in Eternals' post-credits scene, Blade is reportedly dead at Marvel Studios, with the focus shifting to a supernatural team-up, Midnight Sons, that will likely mark his true introduction.
