Marvel Boss Kevin Feige on ‘Black Panther 2’ Without Boseman and ‘Black Widow’ Release Deadline

The Disney + series WandaVision is the first property to launch Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that will hinge between big-screen features and streaming series.

But with Disney planning to do up to ten Marvel Disney + shows in the next few years, is it an embarrassment of wealth?

next WandaVision, the falcon and the winter soldier, a series derived from Captain America will debut this year on Disney + followed by Loki, based on Thorthe bad seed brother.

Not so long ago, Disney’s Lucasfilm sought to emulate a Marvel feature spinoff strategy with its Star wars movies. Sadly, this was cut short after the dismal results of the BO of Solo: A Star Wars Story; one situation too much, too soon. Following Solo, Disney is building the deeper universe of Star wars streaming, with future shows like Boba Fett’s book and Ahsoka, among others, during hatching Star wars films in New Worlds, one of which Marvel boss Kevin Feige oversees (Deadline recently announced the news that the photo is written by Loki EP Michael Waldron).

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‘WandaVision’ Team on MCU Connections and How the Disney + Series is ‘Cute Until It’s Not’

Deadline landed awhile with Feige this afternoon to ask how this new symbiotic relationship between his $ 1 billion comic book movies and the Disney + streaming series would work, and if the theater is doomed to fail in the long run.

WandaVision, which falls on January 15, marks the first time that a Marvel streaming series has focused around two Avengers, in this case Scarlet Witch and Vision (ABC television series Agents of SHIELD made Clark Gregg’s agent Phil Coulsen star of previous MCU films. He died in Avengers and was brought back to life for the show. For the most part, except for Captain Marvel, it largely stayed out of the later MCU movies while the series was on the air).

Tapping into a popular franchise between television and film simultaneously is nothing new, although it is not a perfect science. In 1998, Fox released the film to the big screen X-Files: Fight the future ($ 189 million) which built the show’s final television season. And in 1999 Paramount had the movie South Park: bigger, longer and uncut ($ 83 million WW) as the animated series aired on Comedy Central. There were also no massive blockbusters, but none caused any overall damage to their respective franchises. X-Files would last another four years after the 1998 film spawned a 2008 feature film and two rebirth series in 2016 and 2018. South Park, which first launched in August 1997, is slated to air in 2022. That said, the legacy of both IPs has been defined by their television series.

Yet Marvel has succeeded by swinging for the fences and not being put off in their execution. Therefore, this new call and response between Marvel movies and streaming series could very well be the next big thing as the pandemic comes out.

DEADLINE: Sidney Poitier is known for providing the following advice to Denzel Washington: “If they see you for free all week, they won’t pay to see you on the weekends.” Which brings me to: Are there any concerns about the MCU’s over-expansion in streaming, that it will impact movies at the box office?

KEVIN FEIGE: Well, it’s not free. And that’s no different from the worries I had in my early years at Marvel. Since the rights to Marvel were segregated between multiple studios, there would be multiple Marvel films per year. There was a year when there were three in one summer. The question was, “Whoa, how is this going to last? How will it survive? And my response then, when I had no control over anything, was “As long as they’re different, as long as they’re unique and some of the characters can intersect and the Marvel logo is there. ‘before. But while these are unique and interesting stories, they never go out of fashion. Finding something interesting and unique to watch at home, and ultimately being back in a movie theater, is how we get away from it all, it’s how we learn and how we grow. It’s our job as storytellers to use this format and tell interesting and different stories that happen to be based on 80 years of amazing narrative fiction from the Marvel comics and can tap into all different genres. A half-hour black and white sitcom is very different from anything we’ve done before. It just happens to be the star of two Avengers and the Marvel logo on it, but it’s totally unique and that’s what we had been working on for the features of Disney + and Phase 4. until we have finalized End of Game.

DEADLINE: What is so amazing WandaVision is that it’s so avant-garde. You know something is going on under the veneer, but his satirical approach is very different. What gave you and the creators of Marvel the certainty that fans would go down that burrow with you? They are two very serious characters, and I would never imagine them in anything satirical.

LOOSE: Confidence is – I don’t know if I’m the most confident guy in the world. I think we always question things, but we don’t let fear guide us in our choices either. So, I believe there is a healthy balance somewhere. Since the beginning of Marvel Studios, we’ve always said that we don’t want to do just one type of movie. When Iron Man worked, the first thing we announced was a WWII movie (Captain America) and a Norse God alien movie (Thor), then a team movie (Avengers). So we always seek to take the success or goodwill that comes to us and use it to develop and become Guardians of the Galaxy, and in Black Panther and Captain Marvel. And WandaVision was just an extreme version of that and doing it in a way that will have answers and take the confusion, or the weirdness or the avant-garde nature of it and start to put into the play, as every episode is unveiled. week after week. But we’ve always been rewarded for taking big swings and not necessarily repeating ourselves. And we had great confidence in these two actors playing these two characters and that they could absolutely succeed.

DEADLINE: We know with Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, his character connects to Captain Marvel 2, and that the series connects to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. East WandaVision a ramp to the rebirth of X Men you plan?

LOOSE: Looking back, in five years if when we talk about everything that has happened, anything can be a ramp towards everything, especially if, yes, Monica in Captain Marvel 2 and in particular to Wanda teaming up with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of madness.

DEADLINE: It was announced during Disney Investor Day that you would not be recasting another actor as T’Challa for Black panther 2 after the death of Chadwick Boseman. Can you tell us more? Will it be similar to what was done in Tron where a young Jeff Bridges was replicated via CG? Or is it a whole different angle on Black Panther 2? There have been rumors that it has a feminine angle.

LOOSE: Much of the comics and this first movie is the world of Wakanda. Wakanda is a place to explore further with characters and different subcultures. This was always and initially the main objective of the following story. We are not going to have CG Chadwick and we are not recasting T’Challa. Ryan Coogler is working really hard right now on the screenplay with all the respect, love and genius he has, which gives us great solace, so it was always about pushing the mythology and inspiration forward. from Wakanda. There is also the task of honoring and respecting the learning and continuing teachings of Chad.

DEADLINE: Do you think Black Widow will stick to a theatrical release or go to Disney +? And what is your opinion on sending some movies to streaming? Does that hurt the brand, or do you think audiences are smart enough to decipher that we are except for a pandemic and that ultimately we will be coming back to the movies?

LOOSE: If I had a crystal ball, I would examine it and tell you. I do not. All I can tell you is that for the last three years Bob Iger brought me into his office and talked about a streaming platform that would become Disney + and asked us to start working on programs for this. Our long-term plan was to have the MCU and the storytelling between the big episodic weekly changes on Disney + and the big changes in theaters. It is my great hope that this continues. Don’t ask me week after week what’s going to happen in this world, I have no idea and I don’t want to guess. Everything we did at Marvel Studios was based on, “Okay, if everything goes perfectly, here’s what we’d like to do.” And so far this year, things have gone remarkably well. And I hope the world gets back on track and we all come back to theaters, and people see and experience week after week for the low monthly Disney + fee of what we bring there and then be glad to get it. with people again in real life and sit with strangers and share big screen experience.

DEADLINE: Will you ever relive any of the Netflix Marvel series as Luke Cage or Jessica Jones, etc. or is that time completely over?

LOOSE: Well you certainly saw what we announced at Comic-Con a year and a half ago and on Disney Investor Day a few weeks ago, so that’s our focus. But I’ve been at Marvel long enough to never say anything.