Sometimes my job is pretty cool. Like when I get invited to Los Angeles to participate in the Avengers: Age of Ultron press event, get to see the movie early and interview the people involved in making it. Travel and accommodations were covered by Disney and Marvel, but all thoughts and experiences are my own.
It’s not everyday that you get to sit down with the president of Marvel Studios, but we got to do just that when we met with Kevin Feige during our recent #AvengersEvent trip. In his role as producer and President of Marvel Studios, Feige “oversees all creative aspects of the company’s feature film activities.” He is currently producing “Ant-Man,” which is scheduled for release this summer (July 31, 2015). His other films include the first Avengers movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, all 3 Iron Man movies, Thor and Thor: The Dark World, The Incredible Hulk, among many others. This guy knows his super heros.
Want to hear what he had to say?
Why is there no end-credit scene?
FEIGE: “Well, there’s a mid-credit scene, as we call it, and we’ve always really said it’s not a fast and hard rule that there must be something after the credits. And Joss was a firm believer that we shouldn’t do something that seemed like we were aping the Shawarma scene at the end of [The Avengers] and, you know, his version of the story really culminates where it does at the end of the film and with the mid-credits. And everything we were thinking of just felt like an add-on that wasn’t worth doing. But that’s one of the reasons why he wanted to get it out there so people didn’t sit there for seven minutes and go, what?”
Kevin Feige: Photo Credit Jana Seitzer / https://whiskynsunshine.com
How does it feel to have a fan base that can’t wait for the next release from the studio?
FEIGE: “It feels great, obviously. At Marvel, their big story is about everyone that go back fifty years and through hundreds of comic issues. What’s really exciting is that 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 and 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 in and of itself. And we worked very hard to do that. All we’re interested in is making one singular great movie at a time.”
Photo credit: Marvel
Which character in the Marvel Universe would you like to see next?
FEIGE: “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 and obviously we’re deep into that with Benedict Cumberbatch now. We start Doctor Strange filming in November. So it’s really been amazing. Now, it does come down to very 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’s 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.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron – Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) Photo credit: Marvel
What was it like to bring Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch into this movie?
FEIGE: “It was great. They’re key Avengers characters in the books. They have a great backstory that we really wanted to explore; and they have a great relationship, the two of them, that we really wanted to explore together, and it was one of Joss’s very first notions – probably second notion after Ultron – to bring them in, who have a very different viewpoint of the Avengers and who come into the team from a very different angle than any of the other characters.
The other characters 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, and now 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. And, and we wanted to do that in an Avengers movie.”
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Photo credit: Marvel
Did you read a lot of Marvel comics as a kid, and did you have a favorite character?
KEIGE: “I was more into movies as a kid. I had a lot of favorite movies. I remember a story in particular when I was in the backyard with a bunch of friends of mine when we were, I don’t know, say eight years old- ten years old. And we were playing super heroes, and somebody had chosen Batman, somebody had chosen Superman, and somebody had chosen Spiderman and, 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. And some kids didn’t even know who he was. I was like, he’s cool. He’s Iron Man. Trust me. So that was fun bringing him to life after some kids hadn’t heard of him when I chose him in the backyard thirty-two years ago.”
Kevin Feige and our group of bloggers in Los Angeles | Photo credit: Disney
Check out one of my favorite scenes from the movie:
Be sure to check out the rest of my Avengers posts and stay tuned as I add more exclusive coverage in the coming weeks!
- Avengers: Age of Ultron Movie Review
- Producer and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Chats About Avengers: Age of Ultron
- When Joss Whedon says cross your arms, you cross your arms (and other Avengers-speak!)
- That Time I Was Sandwiched Between Thor and Captain America (Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans Interview)
- Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch Join The Avengers: Exclusive Interview With Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen
- Avengers: Age of Ultron Coloring Pages #Printables
- Avengers Easter Eggs
Follow Avengers on Twitter: https://twitter.com/avengers
Visit the official website: https://marvel.com/avengers
Like The Avengers on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avengers
….and then be sure to catch it in theaters this coming weekend (opens May 1!).
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Wow. How cool! I would love to have been there for that! Thanks for sharing the experience with us. I enjoyed hearing that story about Keige playing Ironman as a kid!