Marvel Studios has obviously had quite the successful history thus far. 23 high-grossing feature films, a high-profile and extremely popular leap into television, and perhaps most impressively of all: a (mostly) satisfied fan base.
Of course, the individual whom most fans credit the MCU's success would be none other than Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. There's a host of skilled people working at Marvel Studios to bring the MCU to life, both in front of and behind the camera, but it's usually Feige and his vision for the franchise that people think of when the studio's success is brought up.
Other studios have attempted to emulate Marvel's success but one thing's for certain, no matter how popular their output is, they don't have a Kevin Feige.
HOW DOES FEIGE DO IT?
Bucky Barnes actor and the Falcon and the Winter Soldier star, Sebastian Stan recently spoke to Collider about what makes Kevin Feige tick and what Stan believes drives him and his success with the MCU:
"I think one of the things about him that I feel like I've loved always is how modest he is, and how he really is unbelievably grateful when something works. 10 years in, 11 years, how many years now, I feel like that childlike exuberance is always there. You see the flicker in his eyeballs as he lights up, and when you talk about a character he loves. Or [when he says], 'Hey, by the way, they really love this.' I think he's in love with what he does, and I think that's a big part of why there's a consistent passion there from him to always find interesting ways to tell the story that make sense.
Stan continues to discuss Feige's success in the realm of streaming television with smash hit WandaVision as well as the currently-running Falcon and Winter Soldier:
I dunno, he doesn't get a lot of credit for that, actually, I feel like. I thought WandaVision was a really big fucking creative take. And you know Loki's gonna be its own thing, right? And again, our tone is very different because we were in the tone of the movies, and it's a much more grounded way. But again, now we're developing this sort of buddy comedy aspect to these guys. There's comedy to this Winter Soldier character that never was there before.
He's also sure to make mention of Feige's strategy of surrounding himself with top talent in every needed field and valuing each person on their input:
And [Feige is] a people's person, he surrounded himself with the best. And his thing is always, the best idea wins. There's no ego there, man, and you know that's a huge, huge, huge thing."
Marvel Studios' well-publicized philosophy has always been one of making the best thing possible and not constantly worrying about the next project. Something Sebastian Stan believes is their key:
My impression is that nobody's over at that studio getting caught in the noise. They just love the work. They're just always constantly grateful. Which if you look at the movies, a lot of the endings of the movies [are] like, 'Well, this could be it, but maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get another one!' There's never been, 'Well, yeah, we're Marvel, we'll just fucking hit another home run.' There's always this thing of embracing the last film for what it is and the hope of a continuation without expectation, and that's very difficult to do at that level."
SEBASTIAN STANS MARVEL STUDIOS
It's certainly really cool and encouraging to see an actor speak so very highly of the top brass and environment at Marvel. Praise has routinely been sent Feige's way from his co-workers and people in the film industry that have come into contact with him.
Obviously, Marvel Studios is much more than Kevin Feige, but it's hard to distance the MCU's popularity from the man himself.
After all, they don't call it "The House that Feige Built" for nothing.
