Marvel Studios Co-President On Why Making Movies For Casual & Die-Hard Fans Is Important

The Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s 10th Anniversary is making everyone nostalgic, so its no surprise they’ve released Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years, an exciting new collectors item that you’ll want to read ASAP. The hardcover edition is packed with interesting tidbits, including interviews with Luis D’Esposito, Marvel Studios Co-President.

The MCU is appealing to all kinds of audiences: die-hard movie fans, serious comic book fans, and the casual film goer. The latter often sees the bigger films but go on to avoid the more niche stories such as Doctor Strange. When asked how much planning goes into making the films appeal to this wide range of audiences, D’Esposito confirmred “it’s all planned out”. Apparently, the trick is making it enjoyable without feeling “like you’re taking your SAT tests”.

D’Esposito uses the great example of the Quantum Realm, which moviegoers first learned about in Ant-Man. Anyone who saw that film knows “the Quantum Realm is where Hank Pym was looking for his wife”. However, even without that story context, the Marvel creatives succeed in giving the casual viewer enough information to at least understand that “it’s a place where time is different”. Serious fans might insist that you need the context to better understand the world, but some people just want to watch Christ Pratt crack jokes and beat up aliens and that’s okay. Figuring out how to appeal to both sides is an art form that Marvel has perfected.

D’Esposito goes on to praise the different filmmakers within the MCU, commending them for their commitment. “They’re all connected, and we all contribute to each others’ projects.” It’s no surprise to learn that the directors need to lend each other the occasional hand, especially considering the details they’ve created within their respective worlds. We learned from the Infinity War bonus features that the Russo Brothers recruited Black Panther director, Ryan Coogler, to help with the Wakanda scenes since he was infinitely more familiar with the fictional country’s layout.

There has never been a cinematic universe quite this extensive, especially one that does its best to stay connected and avoid serious plot holes/timeline issues. The team effort behind the MCU is astounding and we have folks like D’Esposito and Kevin Feige to thank for the consistency and natural flow.

The highly anticipated Avengers 4 is set to be released next May and we suspect more Quantum Realm connections will follow.