{"id":78740,"date":"2025-07-20T19:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/78740\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T19:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T19:19:10","slug":"marvel-studios-kevin-feige-on-blade-fantastic-four-future-mcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/78740\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige On ‘Blade’, ‘Fantastic Four’ & Future MCU"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen it comes to the future of Marvel Studios<\/a>, which has taken its licks this year with misfires Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World, the No. 1 superhero box office brand isn\u2019t letting up. <\/p>\n

\n\tMarvel Studios Producer and President Kevin Feige<\/a> in a sit down with the press at Marvel\u2019s Burbank HQ gestures toward a series of locked doors in a meeting room. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a seven-year plan,\u201d teases Feige, \u201cI think it goes to 2032.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s on magnets, it can move around.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFeige is particularly chipper, for even though Marvel is skipping San Diego Comic-Con this year as they remain knee deep in production on the Russo Brothers\u2019 Avengers: Doomsday and in prep on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the Marvel Boss and former X-Men associate producer, finally has his hands in The Fantastic Four thanks to the Disney-Fox merger. Having that subset of Marvel characters has liberated Feige to take even bigger swings with the MCU. The Fantastic Four: First Family is looking to be Marvel Studios\u2019 biggest opening YTD with $100M-$110M stateside. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Fox had respectable success with 2005 and 2007 Fantastic Four movies (which starred Chris Evans as Johnny Storm pre-Captain America), the former studio saw a Josh Trank directed 2015 reboot completely tank after a full reshoot, grossing only $167M worldwide. This time, it\u2019s different, it\u2019s Feige\u2019s Fantastic Four. <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tEbon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn in \u2018The Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>\u2018<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Marvel<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy Fantastic Four?\u201d explains Feige on the reasons for another redo. \u201cBecause it\u2019s Marvel\u2019s first family. It\u2019s in the history of our characters; they deserve to be A-listers. They were A-listers in the comics. Every crossover movie we\u2019ve made in the Infinity saga, Civil War, leading to Infinity War and Endgame, which is really the Infinity saga from the comics, the Fantastic Four were huge players in those comics and obviously we couldn\u2019t do that then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile several Marvel projects post Avengers: Endgame have dovetailed between TV series and films, for Feige, it was important to have the Fantastic Four be contained in their own world sans any callbacks to the Avengers\u2018 blip or other verse characters. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a no homework required go-see-the movie. It\u2019s literally not connected to anything that was made before,\u201d says Feige, \u201cIt kicks off phase six.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere were a lot of left turns and surprises that happened over the last seven or eight years,\u201d Feige continues, \u201cA positive one was to finally have those characters back and the X-Men.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tGetting access to the Fox Marvel characters has enabled Feige to plus-up the next two Avengers movies with the most notorious antagonist in the comic-books: Dr. Doom. While the original plan for the Avengers movie announced at Comic-Con 2019 was to feature Jonathan Majors\u2019 Kang the Conqueror as the main baddie, the character\u2019s future was thrown into question after the actor\u2019s arrest for assaulting his then girlfriend in early 2023. <\/p>\n

\n\tFeige says, \u201cEven before what had happened to the actor, we had started to realize that Kang wasn\u2019t Thanos.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was only one character that could be that because he was that in the comics for decades and decades, and because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it, and that\u2019s Dr. Doom,\u201d says the studio boss. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had started talking about Dr. Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang,\u201d he says, \u201cIn fact, I had started talking with Robert about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlready Patrick Stewart\u2019s X-Men papa Dr. Xavier has made a cameo in the Disney\/Marvel Studios Universe Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with a slew of X-Men characters, i.e. Channing Tatum\u2019s Gamit, and even Wesley Snipes\u2019 Blade<\/a> making cameos in last year\u2019s Deadpool & Wolverine. <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tWesley Snipes in \u2018Blade\u2019 (1998).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMarvel<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of Blade, despite being taken off the calendar, the project remains in development with 2x Oscar winner Mahershala Ali still attached. The movie with the actor was first announced at SDCC 2019 with Ali taking the Hall H stage in what was a then huge announcement of the MCU\u2019s plans across cinema and Disney+. <\/p>\n

\n\tFeige revealed on Friday that while there were four versions of Blade in the works, two of them period (one of them set in the 1930s), \u201cwe landed on modern day and that\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn pausing Blade after the exit of two filmmakers, Yann Demange, exit and then assam Tariq\u2019s departure, Feige says \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can start and have a good script and make it a great script through production, but we didn\u2019t feel confident we could do that on Blade,\u201d he continues, \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to do that to Mahershala and didn\u2019t want to do that to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of the success of his own vampire movie, Sinners, one reporter wondered whether Ryan Coogler would get to take a crack at directing Blade. Feige says there\u2019s no plans, rather the director remains committed to Black Panther 3. <\/p>\n

\n\tFeige\u2019s next phase of the MCU are fewer, more quality movies, numbering anywhere from 1 to 3 movies annually with less connectivity between the movies and TV shows. Marvel learned the hard way that their over-reaching Disney+ series and theatrical movie plans were too much of a good thing for fans, evident in the bombing of The Marvels ($206.1M global box office) which fused together Brie Larson\u2019s Captain Marvel (who had her own $1 billion grossing film) with the lesser-known characters of Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau. The takeaway was that many fans and general moviegoers didn\u2019t buy tickets for The Marvels because they weren\u2019t caught up on Ms. Marvel on Disney+ <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChuck Zlotnick\/Columbia Pictures\/ Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, while storylines won\u2019t crossover between series and film, characters will, read Jon Bernthal\u2019s The Punisher cameo in the upcoming Sony\/Marvel Studios\u2019 Spider-Man: Brand New Day. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhere we have great actors playing great characters, I think it would be fun to see them in multiple places,\u201d says Feige. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith Downey Jr. now playing Dr. Doom, are there plans to recast the core Iron Man, Captain America, etc on the big screen? Yes and no. Feige sees a star such as Chris Hemsworth still in his prime to play Thor, and even cherishes the return of thespians (i.e. Tim Blake Nelson\u2019s Samuel Stern in Captain America: Brave New World) who played Marvel characters years ago. But, yes, in the long-term like with many other storied movie franchises, Marvel classic superheros will get new faces. When exactly? \u201cX-Men is where that will happen,\u201d promised Feige. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition, post Avengers: Secret Wars, there is a plan he says to \u201creset singular timelines\u201d and reboot he MCU. Are there more R-rated MCU movies after making the highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time with Deadpool & Wolverine at $1.33 billion? Sure. \u201cWhere appropriate and where necessary,\u201d says Feige. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn regard to Feige\u2019s future and whether there\u2019s more Marvel under him, he\u2019s not going anywhere. While his contract is up in two years, he tells us, \u201cDo I want to be making big movies for big audiences in ten or 15 years from now? Yes, that\u2019s all I want to do. Marvel is great way to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tUpcoming Marvel schedule according to Comscore:<\/p>\n

\n\tSpider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony) \u2013 July 31, 2026 <\/p>\n

\n\tAvengers Doomsday \u2013 Dec. 18, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tUntitled Marvel \u2013 July 23, 2027<\/p>\n

\n\tAvengers: Secret Wars \u2013 Dec. 17, 2027<\/p>\n

\n\tUntitled Marvel \u2013 Feb. 18, 2028<\/p>\n

\n\tUntitled Marvel \u2013 May 5, 2028<\/p>\n

\n\tUntitled Marvel \u2013 Nov. 10, 2028<\/p>\n

\n\tUntitled Marvel \u2013 Dec. 15, 2028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to the future of Marvel Studios, which has taken its licks this year with misfires…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10951,171,54348,10953,53,14020,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-78740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blade","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-kevin-feige","11":"tag-marvel-studios","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-the-fantastic-four-first-steps","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114887181186017946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}