There's holding yourself to a high standard and then there's Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who freely admits he's "never been satisfied" with any Marvel movie released on his watch.
When pressed in a roundtable with Variety about Marvel's approach to filmmaking compared to James Gunn's script-first approach over at DC Studios, Feige responded, "We’ve never started a movie without a full script and I have never been satisfied with a script that we’ve had."
After a beat, Feige added, "I’ve never been satisfied with a movie we’ve released.”
Given the MCU's historic success since its (relatively) humble beginnings with 2008's Iron Man, that frank statement should raise some eyebrows. After all, Fantastic Four: First Steps will take Marvel Studios' box-office takings across the $32 billion mark.
Feige has even found acclaim elsewhere, with Black Panther netting several Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design back in 2019. It was also nominated for Best Picture at the same event but lost out to Parasite.
Don't expect the Marvel boss to exhaust his pursuit of perfection any time soon, either. Feige stated that he would be in the moviemaking business for decades to come – and that Marvel is a great avenue for him to keep doing that "right now."
"Do I want to be making big movies for big audiences in 10 or 15 years from now? Yes, absolutely," Feige said. "That’s all I want to do. Marvel’s a great way to do that for me right now, but I hope to make big movies for lots of people forever.”
For now, Feige has a lot on his plate in Marvel Phase 6 and beyond as the Multiverse Saga begins to wrap up. Fantastic Four: The First Steps releases in UK cinemas on July 24 and US cinemas on July 25. On the movie front, Spider-Man: Brave New Day releases next year, as does Avengers: Doomsday. Avengers: Secret Wars will follow in 2027, with Feige promising some sort of MCU "reset" to come.
For more, here is everything that's happened so far on the Marvel timeline.
