Kevin Feige On Spider-Man's MCU Future, Joss Whedon's 'Batgirl', Josh Brolin In 'Deadpool' & More
Last night, Marvel Studios opened its doors to the press for the first time on the Disney lot and studio president Kevin Feige provided a number of quotes about a myriad of topics, including former Marvel stalwart Joss Whedon's move to Warner Bros. and DC with Batgirl, Feige's plans for Spider-Man's future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a lot more. But I know you don't have the time to sift through the internet to track down all those quotes, so I did it for you. Read on to learn about the most relevant Kevin Feige updates.
To make this easy, let's group Feige's comments into categories. First up:
Defections From the Marvel Family
The Avengers director Joss Whedon made headlines a few weeks ago when it was announced that the filmmaker jumped from Marvel to DC and will be writing and directing a Batgirl film for Warner Bros. Whedon famously butted heads with Feige during the production of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but it turns out there's no bad blood between them. In fact, Whedon gave Feige a heads up about Batgirl before the news dropped.
"He called. A couple months ago, which he didn't have to do and was super cool of him and super nice of him," Feige told THR. "And we couldn't be more supportive. We want to see a Joss Whedon Batgirl film be awesome."
Making Ultron nearly broke Whedon as a filmmaker, but at least it sounds like the two men are still on speaking terms. And we're right there with Feige on this one: we want to see an awesome Batgirl movie from Whedon, too.
Meanwhile, what does Feige think about his Thanos, Josh Brolin, heading over to Fox to star as Cable in Deadpool 2? He says Brolin is "killing it" as Thanos, but Feige also isn't opposed to seeing his actors work elsewhere.
"We don't have anything written into our contracts about other roles that people can do," Feige told THR. "Indiana Jones and Han Solo are the same person ... it hasn't been a problem. And I think Thanos and Cable are two very different characters."
He also told ComicBook that "I think he'll make one hell of a Cable," so it sounds like he understands the potential of that particular piece of casting. Besides, how much could Brolin possibly be in the MCU following the second Infinity War movie? Thanos has gotta go down, right?
Beyond Infinity War
Speaking of what happens after the two-part Infinity War, the mega-producer spoke on a number of different aspects about the studio's plans for the future.
What about Spider-Man? Feige confirmed that the webslinger will return for the second part of Infinity War and a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, but, "That's as far as it goes for now." That lines up with comments from producer Amy Pascal, who has hinted that unless the co-production deal for Spidey movies gets renewed between Disney, Marvel, and Sony, the character will revert back to a strictly Sony property in the future. As for the spinoffs Sony is developing (Venom, Black Cat/Silver Sable, etc.), Marvel isn't involved in those. "We had a very particular plan about Spidey himself," Feige said, presumably alluding to the character's reintroduction in Civil War and involvement in the Infinity War films.
In other post-Infinity War news, James Gunn took to Facebook yesterday to announce that he'll be back to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which takes place after the events of Infinity War and "conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond." But that may not be the last we see of Gunn's involvement in the MCU. Feige explained:
"I think James in particular has an amazing connection with these characters and with this cosmic world. So he, I think, could easily oversee additional stories beyond Vol. 3," Feige said to THR. "And I think has them and just continues to come up with them, which is cool. All of our core writers and filmmakers know what we are doing in other places and help give input on the various projects."
I'd love to see Gunn mix smaller films in between big blockbuster event films, but there's no denying he has a wonderful control of the tone of the cosmic side of the MCU. He'd certainly be a welcome addition to anything in the studio's Phase 4 and beyond.
Short Memory, Bro
The only other quote worth commenting on was when Feige spoke about how Marvel hasn't needed to change to appease foreign box office.
"An amazing thing happened as we started making movies: the world started responding to the movies we were making and therefore we didn't have to change or cater them in any way outside our own natural instincts," said Feige. "When it comes to marketing, you'll find us taking different tactics. But when it comes to the actual film itself, I cannot think of a single example where we altered anything, made a decision based on trying to appeal to the 'global market.'"
Feige normally seems like a pretty on-the-ball kind of guy, so it's supremely bizarre that he would say this when the fact that Iron Man 3 added footage to appease Chinese audiences made international news back in 2013. That additional footage wasn't essential to the plot and was little more than a glorified commercial, but considering Feige seems like one of the biggest straight-shooters in the industry, it's so damn strange that he would gloss over this like it didn't even happen.
What do you think about Feige's updates? Which of his quotes did you find the most surprising?