Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige on the Influence of Star Wars

As the president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige is making sure all of the trains stay on time for the highly successful superhero production company. It should come as no surprise that he’s found a lot of inspiration in one of the most successful franchises on the planet.

While speaking on The Star Wars Show, Feige revealed the galaxy far, far away has heavily influenced how he and his team tackle stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He spoke about being obsessed with the Star Wars Sourcebook for role-playing games.

“I read it from cover to cover and it was a wealth of new information,” Feige said. “And one of the great things about Star Wars and one things that I think is great about the Marvel characters from the comics and what we try to emulate in the movies is if you’re the kind of person that wants to go see it on opening weekend, our job is to make sure you have a great time.

“If you want to see it a second time, our job is to make sure there’s more there. Third, fourth, fifth time, still more there. And even the deeper you go, there’ll be things to reward you. And I learned that directly from Star Wars and from those West End Sourcebooks.”

Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm, the Star Wars canon has benefited from a group of storytelling stewards known as the Story Group, and Feige said Marvel has something similar for their shared universe of films.

“We have the core group of filmmakers of the executive producer teams. Again, we’ve been together for almost ten years,” Feige said. “And it’s a little internal group that for various reasons we call Parliament. At the least of which is we often yell at each other across tables. And keeping track of that is not as complicated I think for us as it is for Star Wars. We’ve got ten years, Star Wars has got like 40 plus years. But it really comes out of each individual film and what’s best for each individual story that we’re telling but it is the core group of filmmakers that work on all these movies that keep track of all that.”

There’s a friendly rivalry that will take place in the coming month between Star Wars and Marvel, friendly only because both are owned by the Walt Disney Company. But the next Avengers crossover epic will have some overlap when Lucasfilm’s Han Solo spinoff hits theaters.

Avengers: Infinity War premieres on April 27th.

Solo: A Star Wars Story premieres on May 25th.

Can you see the influences Star Wars has on the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let us know what you think in the comments!