Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige Says DC Has Figured It Out, Talks ‘Avengers 4’ Title And More
AsThor: Ragnarokinches closer to release, more interviews are hitting the web with Marvel Studios president and uber-producerKevin Feige. We’ve already written about his recent comments aboutInfinity War,Phase 4 of the MCU, and more, and we’ll have our own interview with him closer toRagnarok’srelease, but there are a few more statements he’s made in the past few days that are worth discussing – including what he thinks about DC Films and whether the eventual title of the still-untitledAvengers 4will be a spoiler. Join me for a new batch of “Feige Bits.”
Kevin Feige on DC Films
Heroic Hollywoodasked Feige what he thought the team over at DC Films could learn from the successes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Feige, ever the team player, refused to take the bait and reignite the Marvel vs. DC flame wars again. Instead, he took the high road:
I hope Feige is right that they’ve figured things out at DC. (I almost typed “in the DCEU,” but damn it,that isn’t even a legitimate name for their cinematic universe.)Wonder Womanwas undoubtedly a positive sign, so here’s hopingJustice Leaguefollows that upward trend.
An incorrect scoop altered the ending of Avengers: Age of Ultron
Some of you may recall a report going around during the time ofAvengers:Age of Ultronthat Marvel Studios was planning to make a Planet Hulk movie. Feige recently spoke with Umberto Gonzalez atThe Wrap, the reporter who broke that story, and explained how even though they ultimately decided to make a film loosely inspired by Planet Hulk inThor: Ragnarok, the scoop was incorrect at the time it was reported and the ending ofAge of Ultronneeded to be altered because of it:
“You had the big scoop about us doing ‘Planet Hulk,'” said Feige. “It turned out to be accurate [but] at the time, it was not accurate because we didn’t have any plans to do it and Joss (Whedon) was doing ‘Age of Ultron’ at that time. The way it ends as you recall with Hulk in the Quinjet going off, right?
We said, ‘Joss, we can’t do that because he’s not going into space and people are going to think we’re doing ‘Planet Hulk’ because Umberto has some big hot scoop that we’re doing ‘Planet Hulk,’ we can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So, if you go back and look at that shot of the movie, he’s in the sky. It’s blue sky.”
Marvel reportedly changed the final draft of the script to keep their options open, with Feige explaining that the signal for Hulk’s Quinjet is lost by the Caspian Sea instead of out in space somewhere. It seems strange that they’d have the character out in space if theyweren’tplanning on doing a riff onPlanet Hulkat that time, but OK then.
Feige plans to work with Thor: Ragnarok director again
Will Feige work with New Zealand filmmakerTaika Waititiagain after their collaboration onRagnarok? He tellsScreenRant:
“Well, we’ll see. I would love, love, love to work with Taika again and I have every confidence that we will. What we’re working on right now is the next six movies. The next six movies that will bring us to Untitled Avengers in May 2019, which carries off a lot of what you see in this movie. In some cases very directly, and continues to build and grow.”
Feige cited Waititi’s fondness for the work of Marvel comic artistJack Kirby, and being able to translate those bold colors and spacey ideas seems like a good indication that the director would easily be able to handle one of the more cosmic films that we know is coming down the pike in the next couple of decades in the MCU, so perhaps he’ll end up on that side of the universe when all is said and done.
Is the title for Avengers 4 a spoiler?
Earlier this year, Feige himselfconfirmedthat at least part of the reason we haven’t learned the title for the fourthAvengersfilm yet is that it’s a spoiler for the events ofAvengers: Infinity War. But now it seems like that may not entirely be true.ScreenRantasked him if the title was still spoilery, and if we had to wait until afterInfinity Warbefore he unveils it, and this was his response:
“Yeah, I think some of that has been blown out of proportion. We do want the focus to be on Infinity War for now.”
Blown out of proportion? Hmm. I wonder if we’re all overthinking this and ifZoe Saldana actually did reveal the simple, expected titleforAvengers 4months ago. What do you think theAvengers 4title will be?
