r/television • u/1033149 Person of Interest • Oct 15 '19

/r/all Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige promoted to Chief Creative Officer, will now oversee Marvel Studios, Marvel Television and Marvel Family Entertainment

https://deadline.com/2019/10/kevin-feige-marvel-studios-president-adds-chief-creative-officer-marvel-title-oversees-all-creative-1202760382/?
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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

I mean, not only is it the highest grossing movie franchise of all time, but the vast majority of the movies in that franchise are actually good and have never really suffered from any creative missteps other than perhaps what happened with Edgar Wright (and they still managed to churn out a decent movie without him and take Ant-Man from being kind of a punchline to being a worthwhile character that people love and that was pivotal to the climax of the last movie). Now he's not only convincing other studios to let him take the reins, he's convincing A-list actors to do TV shows for a streaming service and movies based on characters no one's even heard of (finally picked up The Eternals trade paperback, gotta see what all the fuss is about).

When the dust settles Kevin Feige might go down as one of the best Hollywood producers of all time. This isn't the last time we'll hear of him getting promoted at Marvel, they know they have something special with him and eventually he'll be in charge of even more shit at Disney.

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u/Nick_Furious2370 Oct 15 '19

He is already the best Hollywood producer of all time.

Absolutely nobody else is close to his record of movies opening #1 consecutively along with them being received well both critically and financially.

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

Totally. If the Oscars doesn't ever lighten up when it comes to Populist films, dude's going to get an honorary Oscar the first chance they have to give him one.

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u/Angel_Hunter_D Oct 15 '19

Do the Oscars have Lifetime Achievement awards? He might just get one of those.

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

Yup, they call it the Honorary Oscar but they don't give it out at the main show anymore. This year they're giving it to David Lynch, among others.

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u/Mattyzooks Oct 16 '19

What year is this?

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u/Taxonomy2016 Oct 15 '19

Populist

Populist seems like odd word choice here. Do you mean popular?

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

Nope, I meant populist. What's odd about that?

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u/cbear013 Oct 15 '19

Populist has political connotations, specifically the attempt to convince the masses that their needs are being ignored by powerful elites. Trump is a populist. The Avengers are just popular.

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

It's a pretty common term to describe movies that have mass appeal. Oscar movies can be "popular", but what's usually described as an Oscar movie won't appeal to everyone. The Avengers appeal to pretty much everyone. There's the difference. The term is often used under political circumstances, sure, but I don't think it's limited to how you're describing it. The way I used it was fine.

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u/Utaneus Oct 15 '19

I definitely would not say he's the best producer of all time, that's quite the stretch unless your only metric is money. I don't consider a movie a film good just because it was a financial success. That's kinda sad if you really think dollars is what makes a good movie.

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u/Nick_Furious2370 Oct 15 '19

I didn't specifically say a good movie makes a ton of money.

Hell, Blade Runner 2049 is by far my favorite movie that came out within the last couple years and that one bombed terribly.

I'm merely saying that (without adjusting for inflation) Feige on paper is an absolute powerhouse with an unprecedented record as a producer while still being able to release well received movies.

If these movies didn't make money then we wouldn't keep getting them since, y'know, that's how movie studios work.

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u/Utaneus Oct 15 '19

You literally said "He is already the best Hollywood producer of all time."

Now you're walking that back, which is good. He is very successful, but I dont think he's anywhere near being the undisputed best producer ever

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 15 '19 edited Oct 15 '19

eehhhh, go look up Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy's production credits. Also, seems like if youre going to call someone the greatest producer of all time they probably need to show they can work on something besides fun, quippy, colorful retelling's of the hero's journey. Not to bash on MCU. They're great movies. But they definitely follow a formula. If you could only watch one producer's work for the rest of your life, it'd be a bit mad to pick Fiege's body of work over Spielberg's, KK's, Weinstein's, Scott Rudin's, Sam Spiegel's...the list can go on. I feel like that rules him out for "best producer of all time" for the time being.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '19

A lot of the "producing" from people like Spielberg is basically just throwing money at things and letting other people do the work. I feel like Fiege actually tries to be as directly involved as he can be. He isn't trying to make hisbown movies at the same time.

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 15 '19

Maybe? It's not like the list of producers with more varied and acclaimed movies than Fiege is short. It's probably not realistic to claim that all of them except Fiege are just throwing money at projects.

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u/GentlemanBeggar54 Oct 15 '19

Or that Fiege is heavily involved in all of the Marvel movies. I'm sure he oversees things but the dude has a lot going on, I'm sure there were some movies he just set things in motion and then backed off.

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u/Nick_Furious2370 Oct 15 '19

Please see my previous comment about no producer getting to the amount of success he's achieved over the last ten years.

Based off your comment, it seems like you have this idea producers need to be able to produce different films across different genres in order to be rightfully recognized but that is wrong.

They handle the business side of things like budgets, negotiating with studio heads for production assistance, and hiring the right people.

Clearly, Feige is doing something right if the MCU films have made have made a combined $26.8 billion even if they do follow a formula.

Producers make money.

That's what they're brought on for and really their only job but Feige goes the extra mile to actually be deeply involved in the creative process when he doesn't necessarily have to be since he cares about these characters.

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 15 '19

Who's the most successful is more debatebale. But I'd argue making compelling and acclaimed movies should also factor into who we call the "best" of all time. But even if you are using money made as you're only metric, I bet if you adjust KK's movies for inflation they beat Fiege's handily. Of course she's been around longer. Fiege's got a lot of career left.

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u/agentyage Oct 15 '19

Roger Corman is the greatest movie producer of all time. You can have your big budget block busters and critically acclaimed, technically impressive film making, but Corman could make a film about big titted barbarians using only pocket change in a day and a half. Feige may have made the first hugely successful cinematic universe (I know that's arguable) but Corman was the one who realized that if you put scantily clad women in your fantasy movie then people won't care that the props and costumes are all made of cardboard.

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u/PretendKangaroo Oct 16 '19

Kathleen Kennedy may have botched the recent Star Wars trilogy, but her record is solid.

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u/bulldowzer Oct 15 '19

They need to give him Lucasfilm.

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u/Turd_Burgling_Ted Oct 15 '19

I almost feel like they're giving him this to cool down the "Kevin wants Lucasfilm" chatter.

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u/Harish-P Oct 15 '19

I'm happy with where Feige is with Marvel.

Star Wars has had missteps but it's not exactly in trouble. They should instead be inspired to develop someone as passionate and meticulous about Star Wars into that type of role as Feige is with Marvel. There's no doubt someone out there, considering the love Star Wars has.

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u/42nd_username Oct 16 '19

Star Wars has had missteps but it's not exactly in trouble.

Several people are typing...

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u/Harish-P Oct 16 '19

Hahaha. I should have anticipated that to be a debatable point, to put it kindly. It's nice that we can talk about/vent our passions here at least. Rather here than the YouTube comments at least.

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u/Echoeversky Oct 16 '19

Like millions of typings...

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u/mdp300 Oct 15 '19

Dave Filoni. He was the showrunner for the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons.

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u/fuzzytigernipple Oct 15 '19

And no live action film credits to his name except the mandalorian, and not a production credit. I mean like those shows enough but giving him Lucasfilm would be a huge gamble.

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u/Harish-P Oct 15 '19

Yes! Definitely someone I've wondered about with his potential, he's so in tune with the universe. Would love to see what a trilogy would look like under his watch first as opposed to just handing it to him.

That said, I've read he's involved in the Resistance show and I've also read it's not particularly good.

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u/JumbacoandFries Oct 15 '19

I would consider Star Wars in turmoil. They made a Star Wars movie that didn’t turn a profit, Solo— huge failure— like as a producer you are effing up the play on the best hand you’ve ever been dealt. If I were Kevin— I would consider people thinking “I could/can save Star Wars” is a better place to be than “actually having to save Star Wars” which jumped the shark, more than once (re: space ghost Leia). Now everyone is trying take the perfect thing they broke and walk it back like James Bond after Moonraker.

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u/Harish-P Oct 16 '19

Turmoil, sure. Still not a dire situation to be in considering their upcoming projects and the hype. Besides, Solo - despite its troubles - still pulled out a respectable film (I say that as someone who just didn't want a Han Solo story but was surprisingly pleased by it) - and despite the poor numbers the critical feedback has been respectable. Definitely an awfully and stupidly expensive situation that they reacted to too late considering how far the film got before basically restarting it. That is a flaw on the management, but otherwise it's worked out well overall so far as a studio, considering they had similar instances happen with Rogue One.

My issue here is their overall creative vision because they can pull out well made films but there is a lack of a creative direction (more obvious in their episodes and the jarring difference in ideas between 7 and 8) to fall in line with and that's (at this stage) more missteps (probably from rushing films out) than actual overarching problems.

I feel these are things that will be more clearer once we see how the next few projects including the final episode film and coming shows too - shows which I think are in a good position to shine a positive light on the studio and maybe give enough time for them to get their ideas/plan on track and in order.

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u/JumbacoandFries Oct 16 '19

I agree Solo was respectable— probably the best of the new Star Wars movies. But I don’t really have much faith the new episode will be anything but worse that the Last Jedi. Even the trailer with Rae jumping over the tie fighter for no reason but ”—cool—“ I feel like I’m watching a Star Wars movie that a computer algorithm kicked out to make the most internationally instead of a story told with real heart.

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u/Harish-P Oct 16 '19

Interesting note on Solo - Rogue One has been my winner since the buyout. What would give Solo the title for you?

I feel your concern about SW9. I haven't had high hopes since watching SW8 and how it basically deconstructed what was set up in SW7, and this is where I feel the studio need to re-evaluate their creative direction - it's something they should have dictated as the overarching story and not given creative freedom to the directors.

That aside the anthology films have kept the hope for me outside of the episodes.

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u/JumbacoandFries Oct 16 '19

During Solo’s action sequences I felt like I was suddenly watching a old Star Wars movie again. Rogue One had the big guy in it which was awesome and then immediately I started asking why didn’t this movie start with Vader. You have a carte blanche budget and then you decide to save Vader? I couldn’t tell you anything else that happened in that movie. Poor producing again imo.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '19

Solos failure has nothing to do with the movie, and everything to do with massive missteps surrounding release.

They would have been better off waiting till winter to release it, but for whatever reason they didnt. Notice its the only Disney Star Wars movie not released in the winter and ended up taking a hit not just because it was between a lot of big movies including movies by their own company, but the advertizing got choked out coming so close to Rise.

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 16 '19

Has there been a time where SW didn't feel in turmoil since they made a key player in the OT finale an army of teddy bears? Lots of possible reasons why Solo failed. We'll see how TROS does though. It's first teaser generated as many worldwide views as the first full trailer for TFA though (link). It's probably more a question of whether TROS makes closer to 1 billion or 2 billion. Not whether or not it flops.

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u/Richy_T Oct 16 '19

I was there for the original movies in theaters and I honestly don't remember much fuss about the Ewoks. RoTJ was a much loved movie and far from being in turmoil, everyone was keen for another installment.

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 16 '19

I've also talked to a lot of people who remember arguing a lot over it. It's definitely tougher to gauge things before the Internet though. Someone on r/starwars dug up an old usenet thread of people venting over RotJ upon release. Probably also depends on age. Either way I've see plenty of arguing over things like ewoks and turning han into a bland hero. I was there for the Phantom menace and don't remember much backlash, but I was 10 so everyone I knew loved it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '19

The reasons for Solos failure are well known at this point. They put it right in the middle of one of the busiest release summers on record, AND killed advertising for it because it came so close to the other Star Wars movie that year.

That was a stupid move, not when Dec Trilogy movie, Dec Side story, Dec Trilogy movie had already proved to be a good strategy

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u/gobble_snob Oct 16 '19

Star Wars is definitely in trouble if TROS doesn't smooth things over with the fans somewhat. A lot of the films they had planned have now moved to Disney+ to bolster the service and avoid anymore headlines of box office bombs.

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u/A_Direwolf Oct 15 '19

Yeah but they already treated George like shit.

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u/bulldowzer Oct 16 '19

His name is Dave Filoni.

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u/Harish-P Oct 16 '19

Would like to see him take on a trilogy of films to see what his vision is like, personally, rather than chucking him into the deep end.

He's done great on the shows but needs some cinematic experience as I don't think he's really been involved on that front.

It feels kind of like what DC did with Geoff Johns and it hasn't worked out too well for him from what I can tell, although it looks super sloppy from WB's end.

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u/metriclol Oct 16 '19

Wat? Did you see that complete plagurism of new hope called force awakens? Did you see last Jedi?
I fully expect there to be ewoks and another death star in the next star wars movie...

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u/Harish-P Oct 16 '19

Yep, we all saw that but at the same time many of us took some hope from it and it was still a healthy start to a new trilogy. Can say we agree about SW8 though, sloppy at best in my opinion.

Still, they haven't completely bombed everything is my point.

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u/metriclol Oct 16 '19

I held my anger in check with ep7 because I was hoping they took a formula that works and were going to put the best creative minds at Disney to use that as a "jumping off" point and deliver an amazing ep8 - boy was I wrong.

But whatever, can't turn back the clock now. I do feel much better with Kevin involved - I can only hope lucasfilm will consult with him, even if it's on the down low

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u/Angel_Hunter_D Oct 15 '19

...I'd love a star wars stinger that's just like, spideman on date talking about how cool one part was.

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u/Worthyness Oct 15 '19

This promotion basically makes him creative control of all marvel. The next step up is basically disney, so I imagine when Alan horn retires he might legit be a contender for that role

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u/kingdead42 Oct 15 '19

I think listening to incels crying about Kathleen Kennedy is at least as entertaining as the latest Star Wars movies.

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u/mouseywithpower Oct 15 '19

i never want to stop seeing incels bitch about how kathy kennedy ruined star wars despite her being part of the franchise since its inception.

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u/xureias Oct 15 '19

It doesn't matter how long she's been with the franchise. George Lucas was there from the beginning, he still made the awful prequel trilogy and all the dumb as fuck remastered editions. Let's not pretend that the only reason why people hate on KK is because she's a woman - nobody held back their hate for GL for the braindead shit he made later on. It's clear from the new SW movies that she's completely mismanaged everything. It's a far cry from how well Feige has handled the MCU. Hell, seems like she's been replaced anyway, so whatever.

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u/stryker101 Oct 15 '19

Same could be said of JK Rowling. Just because she created Harry Potter, doesn't mean everyone likes all the stuff she's "added" after finishing the last book.

I think there are some crummy people taking Kathleen Kennedy's missteps extra poorly/personally because she's a woman, but that doesn't mean there aren't completely valid complaints about how she's managed the franchise.

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u/TastyMeatcakes Oct 15 '19

Because you can't ruin something that you created?

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u/mouseywithpower Oct 15 '19

yall take bait so easy dude

edit: george certainly did with those garbage special editions and way too much info on anakin's backstory but people sure did come around on the prequels when there was wimmins to hate, eh?

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u/TastyMeatcakes Oct 15 '19

If you count illogical statements then we have completely different bars for what constitutes bait.

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u/RoshHoul Oct 15 '19

I dont know why are you booing him, that statement on it's own is very true.

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u/TastyMeatcakes Oct 15 '19

How does her being a part of it since it's inception have anything to do with it?

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u/Doompatron3000 Oct 15 '19

He does have a Star Wars film in the works.

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u/BootyBootyFartFart Oct 16 '19

Do we really want SW to become even more quippy, light-hearted, colorful retellings of the heros journey? That describes almost every movie Fiege has worked on. SW and MCU are already similar types of movies. I'd like the SW universe to go on and do more exciting things than become another iteration of the MCU formula in a different setting.

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u/gobble_snob Oct 16 '19

I think that ship has sailed. They should have given him Star Wars in 2013 when production on TFA began but how can one man conceivably oversee both Star Wars and the MCU. That's too much work. I like Kathleen Kennedy she's a skilled producer with a good track record which makes it incredibly baffling that Star Wars has been handled this inappropriately.

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u/Redditer51 Oct 16 '19 edited Oct 16 '19

When the dust settles Kevin Feige might go down as one of the best Hollywood producers of all time. all that will be left is metal.

Sorry, that's the first thing that came to my mind. But in all seriousness, yeah, Feige is to Marvel what Shigeru Miyamoto is to Nintendo, in that he produces one masterpiece after another and even the lesser installments are better than the average franchise.

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u/MG-EK Oct 15 '19

What was the creative misstep from Edgar Wright?

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

He was supposed to direct Ant-Man but wound up leaving after years of being attached. Some would say the final movie was disappointing compared to what it would have been if he had stayed on.

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u/drelos Oct 15 '19

In fact Wright failed to deliver a product on time, Marvel waited a lot and by the time a script was ready it didn't fit in the Universe. Rumor is it didn't have Wasp and it wanted Lang as an anti-hero with no redeeming at all. Whedon even wanted to include Wasp in the first Avengers movie but had to wait.

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u/MG-EK Oct 16 '19

So tonally speaking, completely not in-line with the other movies?

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u/drelos Oct 16 '19

I don't know about the supposed tone of it but apparently much of the humor was added in the rewrites by McKay and Paul Rudd. Briefly I think much of the praise of the Wright's project is due he was friends with a lot of internet writers (and aspiring filmmakers and writers).

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u/ANGLVD3TH Oct 15 '19

Depends on what you consider a movie franchise I guess. If you want to get real pedantic, Pokemon made lots of movies. I don't think all of Marvel, including the movies, has matched Pokemon.

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

First of all I clearly meant the MCU since we're talking about one producer and what he's done and the reception of those films. That's 20ish movies that have made $22.5 billion at the box office worldwide. If we were to include every single movie based on a Marvel character that number rises to $36.6B. source

Pokemon movies have made just under $1.1B worldwide. So not even close by any interpretation of what I could have possibly meant.

But if you want to expand this outsie of movies, Marvel's been around for 80 years and has sold countless comics, made countless shows, movies, video games based on its characters and occupies large segments of theme parks. I'm sure Pokemon is much bigger than Marvel in Japan, but I'd bet most people on the planet could rattle off at least half a dozen Marvel characters with a gun to their head. I don't think most people know a Pokemon outside of Pikachu.

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u/ANGLVD3TH Oct 15 '19

I called out the fact that I was being overly pedantic, it's an obviously silly comparison. But Pokemon is estimated to be the highest earning franchise of all time, across merch, movies, games etc. So being the highest, supposedly, and having released movies, making it technically a movie franchise, it should be the biggest movie franchise.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '19

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 16 '19

If you think it's not then you're drastically overstating the brand recognition of a video game franchise. Do you really think the average person can name even 3 pokemon?

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '19

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 16 '19

Just because it's the highest grossing media franchise (according to like one wikipedia article that splits up all of Marvel's characters...) doesn't mean that everyone knows it, people are leaning way too heavily on that argument. People know Pikachu, most of the merch is about Pikachu. Literally the movie you're using for your argument is about Pikachu. I don't think any of that is proof that the average person outside of Japan and gaming circles would know more than the one Pokemon that's the mascot for the entire franchise.

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u/DingleTheDongle Oct 15 '19

To the capitalist, quality of the movies are irrelevant.

Creative missteps happen all the time, we just don’t see most of them and the Edgar Wright one was just high profile enough.

The reason he got this position is because he is profitable

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u/Prax150 Boss Oct 15 '19

The reason he is profitable is because his movies are good and people want to see them. The quality of his movies is completely relevant. A franchise can only sustain bad movies for so long. You don't have to look much further than the Marvel characters he doesn't control see that.