ew.com
There was a boy, born and raised in New Jersey during the late ‘70s and ‘80s, who was obsessed with movies, then later became a comic book obsessive. For most kids, these might be distractions. For Kevin Feige, they were tools he’d someday use to reshape pop culture storytelling.
As part of EW’s double-issue dedicated to Avengers: Infinity War, we wanted to talk with the Marvel Studios president about where things go next.
But first, for those who may not know, here’s the origin story (the short version):
Feige went to film school at USC and one of his first jobs was as an assistant to producer Lauren Shuler Donner on movies like Volcano and You’ve Got Mail. When she made 2000’s X-Men, she gave Feige an associate producer credit because the kid was invaluable. He knew comic book lore the way Bruce Banner knows where to get durable purple pants.
The works of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other Marvel pioneers were sacred texts to him, and Feige proved adept at helping filmmakers stay true to those classic stories without alienating the casual fans. In fact, his approach often turned those casual fans into hardcore comic book geeks.
He became president of Marvel Studios under the mandate that the company would no longer sell off film rights to the characters. They’d make the movies themselves. And Feige was pushing a very big, very risky idea: a shared universe — uniting separate heroes not just in one film, but again and again in movie after movie.