Last Fall saw Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios break away from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, who will now have nothing more to do with the movies.
It’s been said that Feige was so frustrated that he went to Disney’s Bob Iger and threatened to quit Marvel if Perlmutter didn’t get out of the way.
Disney obviously recognized what they had with Feige, and now has Feige report directly to Disney Studios chief Alan Horn, while Perlmutter still retains control of Marvel TV and Marvel Comics (which is the real reason why you won’t see the Marvel TV/Netflix characters in a movie any time soon).
Captain America: Civil War director Joe Russo confirmed their frustrations with Perlmutter: “We’ve been on that [Marvel] journey from Winter Soldier, and it may have been some story points from Civil War that caused the civil war within Marvel,” Joe Russo offered. “I think that there were years when Kevin was absorbing the pain inflicted on the company.”
Joe Russo further says that now the atmosphere at Marvel Studios is “much healthier, happier” and is paving the way for “really compelling choices,” with the hiring of Taika Waititi to direct Thor: Ragnarok and Ryan Coogler to direct Black Panther, which sounds like something that may not have happened under Perlmutter.
Perlmutter is also known for feuding with Fox Studios — so much so that he had Fox Studios-owned Marvel Comics characters’ comic books and merchandise cancelled.
Actually, the latest sees a Marvel Comics calendar altered to remove any mention of “X-Men.”
Members of Perlmutter’s creative committee also happened to be the ones who cancelled Abnett and Lanning’s Guardians of the Galaxy comic book that inspired the James Gunn movie and new Disney billion dollar franchise. One of the members of the committee, Brian Michael Bendis, even placed himself on a new Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel comic book, which also led to a Disney XD animated TV series with the Marvel Comics editor on Bendis’ Guardians of the Galaxy as the head of the Disney XD Guardians cartoon, Stephen Wacker.
Both Kevin Feige and James Gunn have been adamant about giving proper credit to Abnett and Lanning for being the inspiration behind Guardians of the Galaxy.
The creative committee/Marvel TV also features characters and storylines created by Bendis (Agents Of SHIELD‘s Skye, Secret Warriors, etc.) and favorites of Joe Quesada (Daredevil) as well as the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon featuring Bendis characters/stories. The head of Marvel TV, Jeph Loeb, also created a character used in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, Sam Alexander Nova, which replaced the popular Marvel Comics Nova character, Richard Rider, another one of Abnett and Lanning’s comic books.
It makes you wonder how the payment system works at Marvel Comics/TV: Do Bendis and Loeb get royalties for creating comic book characters used in TV and Disney animated series, of which they have control over? So Bendis and Loeb, knowing Marvel Studios is moving forward with a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, fire Abnett and Lanning off the comic books and place themselves in control and said editor becomes head of the cartoon. Now who is reaping the rewards?
It’s also known that Perlmutter ordered Marvel Studios to move forward with an Inhumans movie, which his Marvel creative committee is presently featuring in Agents of SHIELD. Now with Perlmutter out of the picture, it’s heavily speculated Feige will scrap the Inhumans movie or push it far enough forward that Agents of SHIELD‘s Inhumans storyline will be forgotten.
Regarding the use of various Marvel Comics characters, it’s also been said Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios get first dibs.
