Marvel’s Kevin Feige Reveals Surprising Iron Man Connection With Ryan Coogler

Ever since the first Iron Man movie was released fifteen years ago, the creative minds at Marvel Studios have made surprise appearances at some screenings of the movie. Oftentimes they’ll sneak into the back of a 7 PM showing to watch the reaction to the conclusion and see how audiences are responding. This tradition began with Iron Man in 2008, and speaking in a new retrospective Marvel head Kevin Feige shared a surprising story about when they did this, something that might make you believe in fate. In attendance for one of those screenings of Iron Man, none other than Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s Ryan Coogler. 

“Going back to opening night, we were at the Cinerama Dome, introducing it, you and I and Downey and some of the team, to a packed audience…totally unannounced,” Feige revealed in a “15 years later” retrospective video with director Jon Favreau. “We just went in the back and the Cinerama Dome was one of them. Many years later I learned that Ryan Coogler, who would go on to direct Black Panther, was in the audience that night. He told me a story, this was months and months if not a year into working with him, he said, By the way I want to tell you something, I was at the Cinerama Dome,’ and he said he saw the three of us walk past him, he’d been getting popcorn and was running in late as we were going out. He said, ‘You guys looked confident, I knew the movie was going to be good, you looked confident.’ I have no memory of feeling confident at all that night.”

Favreau added, “That was the type of movie, it was a fun type to go to because people cheer and then people also laugh. If you’re doing a drama, (it’s )very hard to feel the room. There’s an energy, they get quiet, you can tell if they’re engaged. But when you have one of those types of movie’s where people are cheering and laughing, for me, coming form being a performer, when you get that it’s the same feeling you get when you’re performing for an audience.”

As Marvel fans are well aware, Coogler would go on to direct both of the Black Panther movies, having a major hand in developing that corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and making that side of it a cultural behemoth. There’s been no word just yet about Coogler’s next step as a filmmaker, or where his attention will turn in the MCU, but a series set in Wakanda and scheduled for a Disney+ debut remains in the works.