{"id":383988,"date":"2026-03-14T00:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383988\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T00:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:11:08","slug":"kevin-feige-ryan-coogler-talk-losing-chadwick-boseman-at-usc-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/383988\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Feige, Ryan Coogler Talk Losing Chadwick Boseman at USC Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDrowning out the noise of the internet, learning to move forward after harsh test screenings, and reflecting on the days after the death of Chadwick Boseman were among the insights tendered by Marvel head Kevin Feige<\/a> and filmmakers Ryan Coogler<\/a> and Shawn Levy<\/a> during a fete for Feige on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a unique peek behind the curtain at Marvel Studios as USC celebrated the dedication of the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production at USC\u2019s School of Cinematic Arts. All three of the Hollywood players \u2014 Feige, the most successful movie producer of all time; Coogler, the mastermind behind Oscar hopeful Sinners<\/a>; and Levy, the Deadpool & Wolverine director now in postproduction on the latest Star Wars movie \u2014 are USC grads. And Feige, who graduated in 1995, is among the biggest donors and boosters of the school, which is nearing its centennial.<\/p>\n

\n\tFeige\u2019s endowment, hailed as transformational, will provide a lasting source of funding\u00a0for faculty, students and programmatic support\u00a0for the largest and the most well-known of the school\u2019s seven divisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe importance of the accomplishment was underscored by the presence of Feige\u2019s Disney family, with newly named CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro, film studio head Alan Bergman, and newly named president and CCO Dana Walden sitting front and center, along with Avengers star Robert Downey Jr. and wife Susan Downey, the latter also a USC alum. Other bold-faced names included Marvel Studios co-president Louis D\u2019Esposito, Marvel TV head Brad Winderbaum (a USC alum), media mogul Byron Allen, veteran film executive Michael Ireland, filmmaker Jason Reitman, producer Jason Shuman, and screenwriters Timothy Dowling and Alex Litvak.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe centerpiece of the evening, however, was the revealing conversation between Feige, Coogler and Levy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel has always had a back and forth with fans, going back to the days of the letters pages at the back of its comics, \u201cbut it can be wielded with such force now that you have to be beware,\u201d Feige noted, referring to the power, sometimes dark, of fandom on the internet. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe volume of what is being said online, if you focus too closely on it, \u201cwill crush you,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThere are hours and hours of theories on YouTube, hours and hours on TikTok, hours on subreddits \u2026 You can read everything on everything and get a different point of view on it.\u00a0You can go crazy. So, we don\u2019t do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel finds the best way to get early audience feedback is at the movie theater at test screenings. It\u2019s just like film students showing their films to peers for feedback, only, as Feige noted, \u201cIt happens when you\u2019ve already spent almost $200 million on a movie and you screen it for people and they\u2019re like, \u2018What was that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd then the panic sets in,\u201d chimed in Levy. \u201cYou panic, feel like shit, and then you go back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFeige admitted to not understanding early in his career that disappointing tests are something filmmakers at every level deal with.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought we were the only morons that couldn\u2019t do it perfectly the first time and had to really work at it to make it great. And turned out that Pixar would do the same thing. And turns out that most great filmmakers \u2026\u201d Feige stopped and turned to Coogler, asking, \u201cWas Sinners perfect from the first cut?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo,\u201d he said, chuckling, adding of the most nominated film in Oscar history: \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s perfect [even] now, bro.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tReturning to the topic of the internet\u2019s white noise, Levy said that if a filmmaker can\u2019t mute it, they will get lost in that fog, which will affect a movie\u2019s quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd when you\u2019re working on big franchise stuff, like Marvel and Star Wars, you\u2019ve gotta know when to put it down, go quiet, and go back to what you had in your head and in your voice when you began,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe evening\u2019s conversation veered into a look at Marvel\u2019s process of hiring filmmakers, wherein Feige said that vibing with someone and asking if he could spend the next two years with them in an intense situation was almost more important than a person\u2019s previous work.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Coogler hilariously recounted seeing the first Iron Man<\/a> movie on opening weekend in 2008 at the Arclight in Hollywood, during which he left to go use the restroom, only to find himself temporarily locked out of the theater by security because the filmmakers were there to greet the audience ahead of the screening.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI see Feige, I see Downey, I see Jon [Favreau], and they had Stark Industry jackets and shit,\u201d he recalled. Once back inside the theater, he remembered Downey cracking the audience up and then once the movie started, \u201cIt was magic. And it was my first semester at film school. I had just moved to L.A. And I thought to myself, \u2018I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m here.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Levy told of how Hugh Jackman\u2019s participation in what became Deadpool & Wolverine unlocked the story for that movie. Nostalgia became the very visceral theme for the feature.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was heaven to sit there and go, \u2018Who do people miss and they don\u2019t even know how much they miss them?\u2019 What would be the most delicious wish fulfillment for\u00a0us\u00a0as fans?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFeige and especially Coogler have not spoken publicly much about the immediate aftermath of the death of Black Panther star Boseman, who passed away in 2020 after succumbing to cancer. But on Thursday, in front of the crowd of eager listeners, they opened up about those dark times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFeige revealed that during his last in-person meeting with Marvel execs, Boseman expressed how much fun he was having voicing the character of T\u2019Challa, the Black Panther, in the animated show What If \u2026? He wanted to bring that fun vibe to the next Panther feature, which ultimately, he never got the chance to make.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat anecdote served to underscore Feige\u2019s broader point about how he took Boseman, and in fact, took other colleagues and friends, for granted. He explained that on most movies, people work very closely for a period, and then may not see each other for years after the movie wraps. But with Marvel, there was always another movie to make, another Panther, or an Avengers, or an Iron Man around the corner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will be back in there, that was always my expectation,\u201d Feige said. \u201cSo the need to set a dinner or a lunch to say hi, I just never do. Because we\u2019re busy and because we\u2019re going to have a next time.\u00a0And that hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that there wasn\u2019t going to be a next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCoogler, meanwhile, revealed that in the time after Boseman\u2019s death, Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger flew to the actor\u2019s home in Oakland, all while the COVID-19 pandemic was still at a high.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey came to our apartment in lockdown \u2026 and we walked around the Richmond Arena and just talked. And that was the first real check-in,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t \u2018Hey, what are we going to do about this franchise?\u2019 It was about, \u2018Hey, are you OK? How are you taking it?\u2019 \u2026 It was real moment where you see the humanity beyond the corporate things and the financial responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCoogler called that period a profound experience and said he really tried to learn the lesson of not taking people for granted, to not fall into the \u201cI\u2019ll see you at the next thing\u201d mindset.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was only one Chad, bro. And there was only one character that was really meant for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKevin Feige, Ryan Coogler and Shawn Levy at the Dedication of the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSteve Cohn\/USC<\/p>\n

\n\tYears before Feige worked with Coogler, Levy or Boseman, he grew up obsessed with the idea of attending USC after learning that his favorite filmmakers, George Lucas, Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis, had attended the famed film school. Even as a teen attending a comic and sci-fi convention, he was as focused on obtaining a USC cap as he was finding reproductions of blueprints of Star Wars space ships.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, it\u2019s come full-circle, Kevin,\u201d remarked film school dean Elizabeth Daley. \u201cBecause now students are applying to the school because it\u2019s where Kevin Feige went to school.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHer comment proved prescient. When a Q&A opened at the end of the evening, dozens of students scurried to mics to ask questions. The moments yielded more valuable lessons but also\u00a0amusing moments, including a double take of laughter when a young Black student named Ryan\u00a0Cooper\u00a0from the Bay Area asked a question to Ryan\u00a0Coogler from the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked to name a \u201cWhat if \u2026?\u201d moment that changed the trajectory of his life, Feige mentioned about going to the school\u2019s internship room and seeing an opening at Donner\/Shuler-Donner Productions, the production company run by late Superman director Richard Donner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI loved, loved, loved Superman, one and two in particular. And that was the first and only r\u00e9sum\u00e9 I\u2019ve ever filled out. It was for that. And I faxed to them. If I had not done that, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also listed meeting then-Marvel honcho Avi Arad as one \u201cWhat If\u201d moment and Disney buying Marvel in 2009 as another key turning point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Feige closed the evening, he went back to that question, adding meeting his wife, Caitlin, to the top of that list.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t met her, I would not have been able to do any of this,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drowning out the noise of the internet, learning to move forward after harsh test screenings, and reflecting on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,73999,113911,1893,80585,14781],"class_list":["post-383988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-iron-man","tag-kevin-feige","tag-ryan-coogler","tag-shawn-levy","tag-sinners"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116224635188931634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}