Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Talks “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Age Of Ultron”, And More

The Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t be as expansive, enormous, and entertaining as it is now without Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige keeping a close eye on things. It was, for the most part, his vision that gave birth to films like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, any of the other Phase 2 films and beyond. With Captain America: The Winter Soldier being the last film of Phase 2 set on Earth, this would be one of the few times we would get to talk about one of the heroes of the Avengers before we venture out into unknown galaxies in Guardians of the Galaxy.

We got to sit down with other members of the press to talk about the treatment of female characters in The Winter Soldier, the possibility of a solo Black Widow film, the heavy action sequences seen in the sequel, the other Marvel properties, like X-Men and Spider-Man, that exist outside of Marvel Studios’ reach, and Age of Ultron. Hit the jump to read the entire interview.

One element from the film that I loved was how you treat your female characters with respect, admiration and the film is almost as much about Natasha’s journey as it is Steve’s. Will we be seeing a sole like Black Widow film sometime in the future?

Kevin Feige: I think it could be great. We’ve got various outlines and ideas of where to take that. As Scarlett has already said, there’s a big element that explores her back story in an upcoming Marvel feature. So the question really is when would we want to take her out of that ensemble to go and do her own thing? In fact, as you saw in this movie, as you’ll see in Avengers: Age of Ultron, she is kind of key to so much of the broader world.

Where do you decide to bend things or break them in the interest of moving these films forward as their own unique piece of entertainment?

Feige: In terms of the big event that happens in the movie that changes everything, that was part of the plan for quite awhile – to mix things up and for the world to be very different at the beginning of Avengers II than it was at the end of Avengers I. But also the Russos – in terms of tone – in terms of action, when we met with Joe and Anthony, they were very clear and had very lofty ambitions, saying things like, “We want to do the best car chase in any Marvel movie and maybe the best car chase of all time.” I said, “Well, that sounds good. Let’s try that.” And referencing the best choreographed fight scenes from the last 30 years as inspiration and damned if they didn’t pull it off.

I’m wondering if you can tell me how much of any influence you have on these other Marvel films that come out of different studios?
Feige: It’s limited. It’s very limited with the other studios. Mainly for two reasons. One because we’re quite busy building – building our own cinematic universe and also the contracts are very old and the approvals are very limited. Those contracts are very old with the other studios. I expect they’ll be making Spidey movies at Sony for a long time and X-Men movies at Fox for a long time and I hope we keep making MCU movies for a long time at Marvel.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens in theaters on April 4.