Kevin Feige Reveals When He Knew the Marvel Cinematic Universe Was Going to Be a Success

Over the course of the last decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown into one of the biggest movie franchises on the planet, with movies passing the $1 billion mark at the box office year after year.

The MCU has become known as a constant success, with just about every movie released by Marvel Studios becoming a hit, both critically and financially. In the new book, Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years, studio head Kevin Feige takes a look back at the mammoth franchise he put together.

A connected franchise like the MCU had never been seen in Hollywood before, and Feige was wandering into uncharted territory when he started to put the pieces together. It wasn’t until The Avengers was released in 2012 that Feige knew his gamble was really going to pay off.

“I think it was The Avengers,” Feige said, referring to the moment he knew the MCU would work. “The success of Iron Man was amazing. That gave us the confidence to do another Iron Man film, a Captain America film, and to introduce Thor. The success of The Avengers taught us that the audience really gets what we’re doing, and really enjoys the crosspollination of all of these different film series. And the audience told us unequivocally they were with us. That allowed us to plot out everything that we’ve done since then, and everything specifically building to Infinity War.”

Later in the book, Feige says that part of the success comes from the way the franchise casts its leads, looking ahead to future roles rather than just the one at hand.

“We always cast for the movie we’re making, but we also have an eye on the future,” Feige said. “So when we were casting Chris Pratt, we needed the best Star-Lord, but at the same time, we said, ‘We need somebody who one day might go toe to toe with Robert Downey Jr.’ On the very first day of Avengers: Infinity War there was Robert, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, and it was pretty amazing! There have been a handful of times in our ten years here at Marvel Studios where we have had to just stop for a second and pinch ourselves. That was one of those moments.”

Are you going to be picking up the new Marvel Studios book? What are you hoping to see in the MCU going forward? Let us know in the comments!