Marvel Boss Kevin Feige Speaks Out on Movie Fans Getting Sick of Superhero Movies

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a powerhouse in the media landscape, with its movies and Disney+ exclusive television shows dominating at the box office and in the hearts of fans. While the Marvel Studios productions are far from the only superhero franchises existing right now, they often get lumped into conversations of whether or not audiences have “superhero fatigue.” During a recent interview on The Movie Business Podcast, Feige addressed that speculation, and hinted that the decades-long storytelling of the franchise’s source material prove that it can work.

“I’ve been at Marvel Studios for over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together,” Feige explained. “From probably my second year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?’ I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?’ You would never ask that because there’s an inherent understanding among most people that a book can be anything. A novel can have any type of story whatsoever. So it all depends on what story you’re translating. Non-comic readers don’t understand that it’s the same thing in comics.”

“There’s 80 years of the most interesting, emotional, groundbreaking stories that have been told in the Marvel comics, and it is our great privilege to be able to take what we have and adapt them,” Feige added. “Another way to do that is adapting them into different genres, and what types of movies we want to make. I found that if we tell the story right, and we adapt them in a way that the audience still — knock on wood so far — is following us along 22-plus years later… we can [make] any types of movies that share two things: the Marvel Studios logo above the title and a seed of an idea from our publishing history.”

Will Secret Wars end the MCU? 

The ongoing debate over superhero movie fatigue comes after the confirmation that Marvel is working on an Avengers: Secret Wars movie, leading many fans to wonder if that multiverse-shattering story could end or reboot the MCU altogether.

“I mean, I think it can go for a long time,” Marvel producer Nate Moore explained in an interview late last year. “I think we have to continue to… We can’t sit back on our laurels. We can’t think we have the answers. We have to continue to push the envelope as far as genre and what we’re willing to explore. But to me, Marvel movies are just movies. Our source material is just… It’d be like saying, ‘Hey, are movies about books gonna go on forever?’ Probably.”

What do you think of Kevin Feige’s new comments about superhero movie fatigue? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!