Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Shares His Candid Thoughts On Non-MCU Movies

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Shares His Candid Thoughts On Non-MCU Movies

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige reflects on not having any creative input with the non-MCU movies released in the 2000s, admitting that he "hated" being out of the loop. Find more details right here!

By JoshWilding - Oct 30, 2023 05:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Marvel Studios

Before Marvel Studios launched the MCU with 2008's Iron Man, the majority of Marvel movies were released by studios like 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. Some were good - Spider-Man and X-Men - and others were most definitely not. 

Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Blade: Trinity...the list goes on and on. Even after the MCU launched, Marvel Studios didn't have access to many of its most popular characters, leaving them to focus on what was then a bunch of C-List superheroes with characters like Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. 

Until the Disney/Fox merger, Kevin Feige also had to watch on as bad Fantastic Four and X-Men movies were produced and while he now gets to use Spider-Man, the executive is powerless to stop Avi Arad from forging ahead with developing stinkers like Venom and Morbius

In the recently released MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Feige reflected on the newly formed Marvel Studios' attempt to shape those non-MCU Marvel movies. "We suggested but they didn't listen," he recalls. "We didn't have the control. I hated that."

This is perhaps the most candid response we've heard from Feige on those blockbusters and saying he "hated" not being hands-on with them is very telling. Original Marvel Studios President David Maisel remembers feeling similarly disillusioned with not having access to so many popular characters when those disappointing Marvel movies of the 2000s were being released.

"Your character is in limbo and somebody else controls it," he says. "When you make a movie deal for a license, you’re freezing animation, you’re freezing a lot of other things. You’re handing over your babies to somebody, and nothing happens."

While Daredevil, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, and a handful of other characters slowly returned home, writer Craig Kyle tells the book's authors that it was always Feige's plan to reacquire the properties sold off by Marvel Entertainment when the company was facing bankruptcy in the 1990s. 

"From the moment I touched down in Marvel, Kevin had been telling Avi [Arad] we have to get the rights back. Avi was in a situation where he represented all of Marvel. He was the face of Marvel Studios. Kevin was in there to make great movies. That could never be a guarantee until we could actually control the process."

Thanks to Disney, Feige has mostly succeeded in his goal. Marvel Television is no more, hence why we're getting Daredevil: Born Again. As noted, the Fantastic Four and X-Men are also slowly joining the MCU, while a deal with Sony means Spider-Man is Feige's to do with as he pleases (even if the agreement is tenuous at best). 

What's your least favourite non-MCU Marvel movie?

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Blergh
Blergh - 10/30/2023, 6:19 AM
I do agree with him, you need to have full creative control over these characters to deliver on their stories. If there’s a council presiding over what happens but have no idea who these characters really are you’re in for a rough ride.

Marvel has its faults and more often than not is beholden to Disney politics but they’re trying
bobevanz
bobevanz - 10/30/2023, 11:41 AM
@Blergh - even when they have full creative control, the scripts still suck, there's hardly ever anything comic book worthy other than just using the title. So maybe they need less control.. who would have thought lol
URCOMMENTSUCKS
URCOMMENTSUCKS - 10/30/2023, 6:25 AM
"We didn't have the control. I hated that."

Perhaps why some of those movies turned out great. And even if they didn't, they still had more re-watch value and chances at becoming a cult classic than any terrible MCU movie. I mean, between Ang Lee's Hulk and Quantamania, which one do you think film scholars will study in twenty years?
Vigor
Vigor - 10/30/2023, 6:31 AM
@URCOMMENTSUCKS - lol neither
You'd have to stretch reality pretty hard to state a Sony or fox marvel movie is superior to a mcu one

Unless it's first class
ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 10/30/2023, 6:35 AM
@URCOMMENTSUCKS - Ang Lee was also held back by studio interference. He wanted to do the whole movie in the style of the comic book panel montage scene that was in the movie. I'd like to see some truly unfettered artistry come to the genre
URCOMMENTSUCKS
URCOMMENTSUCKS - 10/30/2023, 6:46 AM
@ProfessorWhy - I call bullshit on that. The studio let him do what the F he wanted. You would have to be given a free reign to do that kind of superhero movie. And I'm pretty sure that comic-inspired editing was found by accident by the editor on some app he had on a computer when was trying to figure something out and then showed it to Lee, who liked it.
URCOMMENTSUCKS
URCOMMENTSUCKS - 10/30/2023, 6:46 AM
@Vigor - >lol neither

Wanna bet?

>You'd have to stretch reality pretty hard to state a Sony or fox marvel movie is superior to a mcu one

Raimi's Spider-Man clears it all, not even a conversation. And as much as I dislike Singer, X-2 was a better team-up movie than anything in the MCU until IW.

>Unless it's first class

I mean, it's bad at continuity (but so is the MCU), but at least it's entertaining without being braindead, like the MCU, and has genuine emotional core behind that doesn't get botched by bathos.
Vigor
Vigor - 10/30/2023, 6:58 AM
@URCOMMENTSUCKS - after I replied to you, I thought about it again and figured you must just be trolling. Nope. You're not trolling. We just have vastly different views on what constitutes a good comic book movie !
BigPhilbowski
BigPhilbowski - 10/30/2023, 7:06 AM
@URCOMMENTSUCKS - as much as I love the raimi movies there's also a lot of rose tinted bias towards them. Recently rewatched the trilogy and a lot of it is very bad. Terrible dialogue, laughable acting from Maguire and Franco and some of the choices are just mind boggling. Still love them but used to rate them in my top 5 comic movies. Not anymore
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