New inside information reveals Marvel Studios President/Marvel CCO Kevin Feige nearly jumped ship to become Warner Bros.' DC man.
As reported by Puck's Matthew Belloni, Feige "talked pretty seriously" with Warner Bros. "a few years ago" about overseeing the company's DC film content. This was around the time when Feige was regularly clashing with Marvel Entertainment Chairman and former CEO Ike Perlmutter over the focus and trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This news comes in the midst of Warner Bros.' structural overhaul, which will divide the company into three production verticals: Warner Bros.-New Line, DC and Animation. According to Belloni, Warner Bros. Discovery C.E.O. David Zaslav wants the company "to become Disney" and is recruiting new heads of content to make it happen. Two of the company's new hires, former MGM chairpeople Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, are reportedly in charge of DC film content while Warner Bros. searches for a leader who can match Feige's excellence. Joker director Todd Phillips was apparently offered an "advisor" role at DC Films, though he was told it wouldn't be "in an executive capacity."
Feige joined up with Marvel in 2000 as a producer and was named president of production for Marvel Studios in 2007. Around 2012, Feige's disagreements with Perlmutter began to intensify as a result of Perlmutter's refusal to invest in diverse, female-led and LGBTQ+ content in the MCU. Mark Ruffalo revealed in 2020 that Feige had spoken with him about potentially leaving the company. "When we did the first Avengers, Kevin Feige told me, 'Listen, I might not be here tomorrow,'" Ruffalo recalled. "And he's like, 'Ike does not believe that anyone will go to a female-starring superhero movie. So if I am still here tomorrow, you will know that I won that battle.'" Perlmutter stopped overseeing the development of Marvel Studios in 2015, though it wasn't until 2019 that Marvel released its first female-led film, Captain Marvel.
Under Feige's direction, Marvel Studios accomplished a never-before-seen feat with the carefully crafted, sprawling MCU, beginning in 2008 with Iron Man. With worldwide earnings in the multi-billions, the MCU is comfortably the biggest movie franchise of all time. In the wake of the highly successful Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012), Warner Bros. began laying the groundwork for the DC Extended Universe with 2013's Man of Steel. The franchise has since been met with mixed reviews overall and has yet to touch the MCU at the box office.
Despite the perceived rivalry between Marvel and DC, Feige previously dismissed any bad blood between the two. "There's not really a rivalry. The rivalry is much more amongst the press, I think," he said. "When the movies perform well and are well received, it's good for us -- which is why I'm always rooting for them."
Source: Puck
