The bad blood between current Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and former Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter is well documented, but it's now come to light that the latter attempted to take drastic measures to remove his rival from a prominent position of power.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is inarguably one of, if not the most lucrative and well-known movie franchises of all time, and a large part of that success is down to Feige. However, the MCU would have been a very different beast altogether if Perlmutter had his way.
The two execs clashed constantly, and newly-reinstated Disney CEO Bob Iger has now revealed that Perlmutter was preparing to fire Feige until he stepped in. Apparently, Iger's "meddling made Perlmutter unhappy — an unhappiness that exists today."
"I knew I had to intervene, and so in May 2015, I made the decision to split Marvel’s movie-making unit off from the rest of Marvel and bring it under Alan Horn and the Walt Disney Studios," Iger told CNBC. "Kevin would now report directly to Alan, and would benefit from his experience, and the tensions that had built up between him and the New York office would be alleviated.”
We're not exactly sure whether the tension arose from Feige trying to assert more control over the comics side of things or Perlmutter attempting to stick his oar in on the MCU, but we're sure most fans will be pleased that things worked out in Feige's favor.
The MCU's Phase 5 officially gets underway with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania next week.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.