Kevin Feige Breaks Free Of Marvel’s Ike Perlmutter & Marvel TV

We get some very good news regarding the future of Marvel Studios in that it’s being reported Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige will no longer have to report directly to Marvel CEO billionaire Ike Perlmutter.

THR reports that Feige will now report to Disney chairman Alan Horn.

It’s said following “several years of frustration,” Feige recently “vented his unhappiness to Horn and Disney CEO Bob Iger earlier this summer.”

Regarding the frustration, there have been numerous reports that Perlmutter has been stingy with the cast of the Marvel movies, with most notably Robert Downey Jr. It was once reported that Perlmutter wanted Robert Downey Jr. written out of Captain America: Civil War; however, it was said Feige smoothed things over. A while back there was also reports that Perlmutter was responsible for tensions between Marvel and the cast of the Avengers, with Robert Downey Jr. backing his fellow Assemblers in getting them re-signed and paid what they were owed.

Perlmutter also seemed to be the one holding up Marvel Studios from creating standalone female movies as leaked e-mails revealed he felt they wouldn’t work.

Perlmutter is also said to be behind the tensions between Marvel and Fox Studios, as the eccentric billionaire ordered no merchandise to be developed for the various Fox-licensed movies (Marvel owns merchandise rights) with X-Men and Fantastic Four and also cancelled their respective comic books. With Perlmutter now out of the Marvel Studios equation, those earlier Avengers X-Men movie rumors are now rather interesting.

The report also makes mention that Marvel TV will still report to Perlmutter. That’s rather interesting as, at least  in my opinion, everything Marvel TV has recently done under Jeph Loeb has been rather horrible, which includes cancelling the popular Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon for Avengers Assemble, relaunching the goofy Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, and the lackluster attempts at the ABC shows with Agents Of SHIELD and Agent Carter. With Loeb reporting to Perlmutter and Feige reporting to Horn, we see there appears to be some distance and a gap created between the movies and TV, which is a good thing considering TV’s poor attempts at the Marvel brand (again, in my opinion).

A Disney spokesperson released the following statement:

“Marvel Studios is taking the next logical step in its integration with The Walt Disney Studios, joining Pixar and Lucasfilm in centralizing many of its film-related functions in Burbank, with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co-president;Louis D’Esposito continuing to lead the Marvel Studios team reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn.”

According to the article, an insider says “Feige has earned the opportunity to break free from Perlmutter, who is not only controlling, but also obsessed with thrift.”

“Everybody knows Ike is difficult,” the source said. “This has been a long time coming. Kevin has grown his entire career under Ike and now it just makes sense.”

Sorry comic fans, but it’s also stated in addition to Marvel TV, Perlmutter will “maintain oversight of publishing, animation and other New York-based operations.”