In an interview with Variety, Kevin Feige revealed that he wouldn’t direct a Marvel movie. Of course, Feige’s turning the opportunity down for a good reason.
Across the list of 22 Marvel Studios movies (and growing), one man has been there since the very beginning: the studio’s president, Kevin Feige.
And while Feige (who just got his very own Twitter emoji) acts as a producer and wears many hats — no pun intended — for the projects he oversees, there’s one task he’s not necessarily ready to take on. For him, that task is directing.
Speaking to Variety, Feige revealed the reason for not wanting to helm a movie of his own was actually quite simple. He told the magazine, “I have too much fun working at this level and having an impact on multiple movies at a time to work on only one thing.”
A Feige-directed movie might sound nice, but it’s good to know that he loves the job he has already and is able to put his touch on multiple movies at once. Variety even broke down what one day looks like for the Marvel Studios president, and it’s not your typical 9-to-5. Highlights of his workday include:
"9 a.m. Development meeting for upcoming movie.11:30 a.m.: Trip to Glendale to review work on upcoming theme-park attraction.1 p.m.: Script meeting for another upcoming movie.5:30 p.m.: Development meeting for early costume designs on a project that probably won’t hit theaters until 2023.6 p.m.: Meeting on an upcoming Disney+ series."
It’s a busy schedule that shows the man with the plan has a lot of planning to do. But luckily, his work isn’t in vain. What’s become a multi-billion dollar enterprise is partially due to his attentiveness to the franchise, his love of movies, and (most importantly) his love of comic books.
Although, the MCU wasn’t Feige’s first rodeo (as Agent Coulson would say) with comic book movies. Before that, he brought on to the first X-Men movie and became an “invaluable” asset in making it true to its comic book stories, as his former supervisor Lauren Shuler Donner revealed.
It was a few years later when Feige was brought on to Marvel Studios, where he went along with a risky plan: Having Marvel make its own movies rather than having other studios make them instead. At a time when the comic book company was in debt, it was an even bigger risk to use a barely known superhero like Iron Man to spearhead the possible movie franchise.
Of course, now we know it was a risk worth taking, and Feige is receiving praise on all ends for his accomplishments producing the last 10 years of movies. Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo hailed Feige as a maverick, while Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson applauded his trustworthiness and creativity of “thinking up new concepts and ideas to make the best movie possible.”
Even though we probably won’t get to see a Kevin Feige-directed movie, there’s enough of him to go around and influence all Marvel Studios movies that come down the line. But just in case, we’ll remember the old phrase “never say never.” Because perhaps at some point, he’ll want to dabble in the directorial world.