With the very recent news about Kevin Feige now reporting directly to Disney studio head Alan Horn and effectively sidestepping Marvel Entertainment CEO Issac Perlmutter, you have to wonder how this could affect the creative side of Marvel Studios moving forward.
Perlmutter has done a lot in his career and his story and involvement with Marvel Studios is fascinating. Something that would honestly make for a good movie itself one day, in the vein of movies like “The Aviator” and “Wolf On Wall Street”.
If you’re wondering why you’ve seen the exact same photo of Perlmutter over and over again, he rarely gives interviews and rarely allows himself to be photographed. An impressive feat due to the fact that he is often in the public eye due to his many court battles.
Such as the, “legal suit launched against him by three female black Disney executives, the cancellation of the Fantastic Four comic and licensing…. the reduction of the prominence of the X-Men due to his falling out with Fox Studios in negotiation over the film rights they owned, and the Sony leak over female superhero discussion, and over his issues with Drew Goddard” (Source)
Permutter is an Israeli war veteran who started the toy company
Toy Biz from nothing after moving to the USA with, nothing. He was the co-owner of
Toy Biz with
Avi Arad, and has taken a similar path as
Avi Arad and also a very different one, but those thoughts are for another place and time. When
Marvel went bankrupt in 1996, legal battles over the control of
Marvel followed between
Perlmutter,
Arad,
Carl Icahn, and
Ron Perelman.
In 1997,
Perlmutter and
Arad pushed out
Icahn and
Perelman and established control of the company.
Toy Biz and
Marvel merged together and created
Marvel Enterprises, this merging also brought
Marvel out of bankruptcy in 1998. In 2001,
Perlmutter became Vice Chairman of the board of directors at Marvel and in 2005 he became
CEO. He has remained
CEO of
Marvel Entertainment, even after
Disney acquired
Marvel on December 31, 2009.
Permutter received $800 million in cash and $590 in Disney stock after the deal, but he has admitted that he does not want a seat with Disney’s board of directors
(Source).
With all of that said, without this man, it is possible that Marvel Studios may not be where it is today. Permutter had confidence in Marvel’s characters, and he mortgaged Marvel’s film rights to its characters and helped green light
Iron Man with
Robert Downey Jr., after the success and critical acclaim of
Iron Man he played a big part in kick starting the Marvel Cinematic Universe (
MCU). (
Source)
Last year
Perlmutter wanted to get rid of
Robert Downey Jr., seemingly having the mind set that the
Iron Man franchise and the
MCU would be successful with or without
Downey. This led to a rumored split between
Feige and
Perlmutter and with the recent news about
Feige reporting directly to
Alan Horn,
Perlmutter’s thoughts about
Downey seemed to be the last draw for
Feige, Marvel Studios, and Disney in what has been called “years of frustration” provided by
Perlmutter.
Knowing that Perlmutter’s feelings about female superheroes, and his business tactics will not be as big of an obstacle for
Kevin Feige you have to wonder how this significant change will affect the
MCU.
Let’s take a look at Marvel Studio’s upcoming movie slate
2016
May 6, 2016 – Captain America: Civil War
November 4, 2016 – Doctor Strange
2017
May 5, 2017 – Guardians of the Galaxy 2
July 28, 2017 – Spider-Man
November 3, 2017 – Thor: Ragnarok
2018
May 4, 2018 – The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1
July 6, 2018 – Black Panther
November 3, 2018 – Captain Marvel
2019
May 3, 2019 – The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2
July 12, 2019 – Inhumans
Looking at the slate,
“Captain America: Civil War”,
“Doctor Strange”,
“Spider-Man”,
“Guardians of The Galaxy: Volume 2” and
“The Infinity War” already have their directors locked in and the heroes have been cast, along with some of the supporting cast, such as the extremely talented
Marisa Tomei as Aunt May and
Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue.
Therefore, this change could take effect starting with the casting of the villains and remainder of the supporting cast of these movies that are still in the early stages of production. Such as
Norman Osborn,
Gwen Stacey, and
J Jonah Jameson for Spider-Man,
Mephisto for the Infinity Wars, and in my fanboy vision where the rights aren’t an obstacle,
The Fantastic Four,
Doctor Doom, and
Storm in
“Black Panther”.
In the aftermath of
Perlmutter’s comments about female superheroes in the movies, this change definitely has the potential to affect the casting of Marvel Studio’s first standalone film based on a female superhero,
“Captain Marvel”.
As far as directors go, we could start to see these changes take affect in time for
“Thor: Ragnarok” , “
Black Panther” “Captain Marvel” and “
The Inhumans”.
How this change will affect storytelling in the
MCU is unknown but
Feige has said that
“There is no dark turn in the MCU.” (
Source) Also, how this could affect
Marvel Studios relationship with
Fox is also unknown because
“Perlmutter will still oversee Marvel Television, as well as the comic book and animation divisions.” (for more
Click Here).
What are your thoughts? How do you think this change will or won’t affect the MCU?
Sound off in the comments!