While I’m attending an expense paid trip by Disney to the press events for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Monkey Kingdom, all opinions and views expressed are 100% my own. Images of Kevin Feige at Avengers Press Junket taken by Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com.
Hello there Avengers fans! Hopefully you’ve been following along these past couple weeks as I ventured to California to interview the talent associated with Marvel’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Just the other day I shared the interview with director Joss Whedon, as well Marvel newcomers Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch). Last week I hope you caught my interview article with Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor). As for today, I’m excited to share with you the Q&A with the top dog at Marvel, the man in charge… Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios!
I actually was suppose to interview Kevin last year as part of the Guardians of the Galaxy Press Junket, but you know how busy schedules go! So I was really excited to learn I had a chance to participate in an interview with him for AGE OF ULTRON. Kevin was named President of Marvel back in 2007. He’s also been the producer of some title on many Marvel movies dating back to 2000’s X-MEN. To interview him is a dream come true for any Marvel fan!
Why is there no end-credit scene? What’s the story behind that?
Kevin: Why is there no end-credit scene? There is a mid-credit scene, as we call it. We’ve always said there is no hard rule that there must be something after the credits. Joss was a firm believer that we shouldn’t do something that seeming like we were ‘aping’ a scene at the end of it. His version of the story really culminates at the end of the film and with the mid-credits. Everything we were thinking of just felt like an add-on that wasn’t worth doing. That’s one of the reasons why he wanted to get it out there (that there was no end scene) so people didn’t sit there for seven minutes and go ‘What!?!?!’
Don’t remember the shawarma end scene? Here’s a quick reminder:
Do you have a team that keeps everything (the stories) straight for the movies and television?
Kevin: Well there’s a television division; there’s a studio division. There’s a solid brain trust of seven or eight of us at the studio that oversee each of the films. Then beyond that, of course, dozens and then hundreds, and then thousands on each production.
How much time has lapsed between the last few Marvel films?
Kevin: I’m not sure we ever directly say it, but we always sort of though that it has been between six months to a year after, probably a good year, after the events of THE WINTER SOLDIER. SHIELD has been brought down at the end of THE WINTER SOLDIER after revealing that Hydra had been growing within it. There’s a lot of fallout. Some of that is on the television series, and some of that we see at the very beginning of this movie.
Will Spiderman make an appearance in CIVIL WAR?
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com. Text edits by me.
In general, sometimes people dread spinoffs and sequels, but how does it feel to actually have a fan base that can’t wait for the next release from Marvel Studios?
Kevin: It feels great, obviously. I do think that spinoffs and things like that are… You know when you’re dealing with certain properties, I somehow get a bad connotation of meaning… ‘Oh, there’s something that had a little story potential that was interesting, so now they’re going to try to build the whole big story about it.’ At Marvel, their big story is about everyone! Go back fifty years and through hundreds of comic issues… So for us, it’s exciting. The comic fan base was one thing, it’s the solid foundation of everything we do. But now it’s increased dramatically with the film base. With the film fans it gives us a certain amount of pressure and sleepless nights to deliver on expectations each time. But it’s also knowing that people are so excited for what’s next…
Age of Ultron is our eleventh Marvel Cinematic Universe film, and we want each of them to stand alone whether you’ve seen the other ten films or not. We believe each film works as a beginning, middle, end into and unto itself. We worked very hard to do that. All we’re interested in is making one singular great movie at a time.
Photo credit: Marvel.com. Text edits by me.
Do you have somebody in the Marvel Universe that you really want to bring into the stories?
Kevin: Of characters? Well, I used to say Guardians of the Galaxy to that question. I used to say Vision to that question. I used to say Falcon. I used to say Doctor Strange a lot. Obviously! We’re deep into that with Benedict Cumberbatch now. We start filming in November. So it’s really been amazing. Now it does come down to individual and specific characters, but if I say too many of them, it’ll give away exactly what we’re doing with Guardians 2 or with the future ones. But it is a testament to the Marvel comics, and how deep its bench is that there’s still hundreds of great characters that we haven’t even touched yet.
What was it like to bring in Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch into this movie?
Kevin: It was great. They’re key Avengers characters in the books. They have a great backstory that we really wanted to explore. They have a great relationship, the two of them, that we really wanted to explore together. It was one of Joss’s very first notions- probably second notion, after Ultron, to bring them in. They have a very different viewpoint of the Avengers. They come into the team from a very different angle than any of the other characters.
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
The other characters (the Avengers) were sort of assembled together by Nick Fury in the first movie, and Thor obviously came into the mix because of the presence of Loki. Now we are having characters come in from a totally different side, which is also a very Marvel thing to do. There are a lot of Marvel characters who start on the other side of a disagreement, or the other side of an argument, or the other side of the law that through a great Marvel redemptive arc become heroes. We wanted to do that in an Avengers movie.
Were you into Marvel comics as a kid, and did you have a favorite character?
Kevin: I was more into movies as a kid. I had a lot of favorite movies. But I remember a story in particular when I was in the backyard with a bunch of friends of mine when we were say eight years old or ten years old. We were playing super heroes, and somebody had chosen Batman, somebody had chosen Superman, and somebody had chosen Spiderman. I remember going ‘Well, I’ll be Iron Man!’ I’ll play Iron Man because I’d seen him in the reruns of the old ’60s cartoon. Some kids didn’t even know who he was. I was like ‘He’s cool. He’s Iron Man. Trust me.’ So it was fun bringing him to life after some kids didn’t hear of him when I chose him in the backyard thirty-two years ago.
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
A big thank you to Kevin Feige for taking time out of his day to chat with us bloggers! I know the Avengers Press Junket was a busy one. It was so awesome that he not only made time to do a Q&A, but also took a group photo with us.
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
Future of Marvel Studios
Check out this quick interview with Kevin the red carpet premiere for AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Marvel Entertainment asks him on the future of Marvel films.
Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer
Be sure to connect with the AVENGERS on Facebook and Twitter!
Marvel’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON will hit theaters everywhere on May 1st, 2015!
Want to check out my Avengers inspired recipes?
Brooklyn Rueben Burger
Hulk SMASH Burger
M&M’s® Captain America Shield Pie
Captain America Berry Shield Tart
Thor Mighty Stuffed Burger
Want a glimpse back on my trip to Los Angeles? Be sure to check out my Twitter (@AshBG) and Instagram (@ashb4211), and look for the hashtags #AvengersEvent, #MonkeyKingdom, #LAZoo, #ABCTVEvent, and #AgentsOfSHIELD.
[…] Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), director Joss Whedon, and Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios. Next week I’ll be posting even more interviews with cast […]