Kevin Feige talks THOR, IRON MAN 3, DOCTOR STRANGE and more

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I am excited to see Thor when it arrives in theaters this Friday, May 6th. In a recently interview, Kevin Feige (Marvel's president of production) revealed some cool details about Thor and a bunch more. I highly recommend you check out the full interview at Collider, below are some excerpts.

Here is what Feige had to say about why Thor was released internationally

Well, it could be…the studios are the ones that control this and set the dates. So Thor could’ve easily have been a day and date release. But the experts at Paramount, I don’t want say this viciously because they are experts at this, said that we would do better if we opened two weeks before to take advantage of the 6 day holiday that happens in Australia and to take advantage of certain holidays that were happening in the U.K. So far, I don’t if you have seen the numbers today but we are number one internationally now, they seem to be right. It’s all part of the strategy, but filmmakers like myself go, “Oh, but what about piracy?! What do you mean two weeks before the United States?!” and they go, “It’s a big planet. It’s not just the United States. It’s the whole word”, which is true. The U.S. counts for half and maybe sometimes less than half of the total worldwide box office. So you sort of have to follow their lead on these things. Now, we as Americans are for the first time feeling what the people around the world feel and it doesn’t feel good. “What do you mean it’s not out until two weeks for us?! I want to see it now!” So it’s a unique experience for us a film fan, and it’s scary as hell as a filmmaker. But I trust that these people that have an unprecedented track record for over the past 5 years, who certainly served us well with the start of the first Iron Man film, know what they are doing.T

This is going to be one of the best summer's ever in my opinion for comic book movies. Here is what Feige had to say about how reviews and box office success impacts the future of Marvel.

It hasn’t opened yet, but certainly all of the signs seem very positive right now. This more than any film, and Kenneth Branagh and I were just talking about this, is “Are people going to go for it?” We think it’s cool and we like the ride, but are people going to go for it? Are people going to go for the cape, the horses, the Rainbow Bridge, the observatory, Heimdall, the helmets, and the hammers? Clearly, we made the movie in a way that we felt would be inviting to people whether they knew if any of that stuff was or not so that they could follow the story and get into the story. It is extremely gratifying that that seems to be the case. It really is. I remember sitting in this room for the junket of Iron Man 2 and people were going, “How the hell are you going to doThor? How are you going to fit Thor into the Iron Man world? It doesn’t make any sense!” I said, “Well, I think it could be done.” I’m very happy that people seem to be responding to that. What does it mean to the future of Marvel? Well, any success means that we can continue to make films and we can continue to get out of the comfort zone. The comfort zone of “I’m a normal person. Ow. I got bit by a spider or hit by gamma rays.” There is more than that in the Marvel universe. Those are great by the way and they are the foundations of the Marvel universe, but then you can start moving into “What if there was a sorcerer supreme? What if there is a country in Africa that is incredibly advanced? What if there was a city under the sea?” You can just keep expanding as it was done in the comics and audiences will go along with us. I haven’t seen Green Lantern yet, but you are right to point that Thor is one of those…as I have been saying for years “We are now trying to go to the cosmic side of the Marvel universe.” Are people going to come with us? Are the people who are used to seeing the Spider-Man or Iron Man? For as non-traditional as Iron Man is, he is kind of traditional. He’s got a suit and he has super powers. They just come from the suit instead of him. I’m very pleased that people are responding to it.

At last year's Comic Con the entire cast of a came on stage, which makes you wonder how Marvel is going to top that. Here is what Feige had to briefly say about plans for Comic Con this year.

It’s an ongoing discussion that often starts just after the last con. There are a lot of discussions going on now. It depends on the schedule, the strategy, and what is going on. The answer right now is that I don’t know for this year’s Comic Con.

There has been talk that Odin's Vault may contain Easter eggs that allude to a Doctor Strange movie. Here is what Feige had to say when asked about that:

I’m not sure about Doctor Strange in particular. Oh, I know what they are talking about. That is not Doctor Strange. It is right out of Thor. It is right out of the first Tales of Asgard stories. I think it’s called “The Warlock’s Eye” I think it is verbatim what [Jack] Kirby drew. I think those are the scenes. There is other coverage and stuff where we lingered on those things longer but again “Why are you lingering on that stuff? It has nothing to do with the movie.” “Oh, but it’s cool. People will recognize it.” You can’t do it. But everything in that vault and everything you might see if you pause and look behind people’s shoulders or as the Einherjar soldiers are walking past – everyone of those has a story and it is from the books. There is Thanos’ glove, or certainly a glove that looks like it could be Thanos’ gauntlet, is in there for sure. The Warlock’s Eye thing is in there. There are some swords. There is a sword there that may or may not be eternal. There are a number of things. There is even one, and in fact I’m not sure if you can see this in the movie or not, but there is one that is empty. There was one sort of subchamber of the vault that didn’t have anything in it. So the question is “What used to be in it?”

Here is what Feige said when asked when Marvel might announce what is coming up in 2013 or 2014:

It probably won’t be too long from now as we are figuring that out now. Clearly, if you look at the Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the X-Men films, two or three years between sequels is usually what we like to do. You don’t know if you are making sequels till the movies come out or not. So I will say that there is flux in what the release schedule could be for 2013, 2014, and maybe 2015. Then we hope to…I’m meeting with Edgar Wright tomorrow morning. It is the longest…I said to Edgar, “You didn’t realize it was like 5 years ago or maybe more than that that we met at Comic Con?” But he has the best draft yet and I think we could be in shape to do it. It’s a luxury that it has been allowed to live and breathe like that. It’s not where it was just racing to a release date. Iron Man 3 is for sure. We are actively putting it together right now. What happens beyond that? We will see. But for the first time…frankly, when we did Iron Man and Hulk we had two movies in development – Iron Man and Hulk. Now, there is more of a selection. So we can go, “What scripts are we feeling good about? What properties do we now feel that we want to bring into the forefront?”

I am excited to see what Shane Black brings to the Iron Man universe. Here is what Feige had to say aobut the excitment surrounding Black's involvement in Iron Man 3:

Like when we announced Robert [Downey Jr.], I always thought that there would be some people who got it and some people would be like, “Well, that is weird. Let’s see what happens.” I was surprised when certainly the fanboy community got it right away with Robert. I should’ve known they would’ve gotten it right away with Shane.

There has been lots of talk about Marvel coming to the small screen. Here is what Feige had to say about Marvel coming to TV:

I don’t know if you have ever spoken to Jeff Loeb, but he is actively working on it. People always ask about Disney. “How is the change? What does that mean? What is happening with Disney?” From my side, I have a few more partners that I can turn to and get things we might need for the movies, but not much has changed on the movie side. TV is where it is going to make all of the difference. I think Marvel on television went from a “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we got to that someday?” to “it’s going to be happening in the not too distant future.”

He goes on to say:

I think like movies, they have things in development. I don’t frankly know the world of TV. I know pilot season and when that is and things coming together. All I know is that whenever pilot season is again, which I don’t know, there will be Marvel properties that will be candidates to go into those pilots. But Loeb is the guy to talk to and if there are any announcements made at Comic Con he will be the one making them.

Earlier we reported that there will not be a Marvel/Pixar movie. Here is what Feige had to say about that:

Let me put it this way, I think there will be a Marvel animated movie at some point. I think that would be cool. I think becoming part of the Walt Disney company and have 8,000 plus characters and have that not become a reality? Whether that is Pixar or not…Marvel is about existing Marvel IP. Pixar, at least as far as I know, is about original IP. None of those are based on anything are they?

I think we have been pretty successful bringing the Marvel characters to life and clearly they have been pretty successful in coming up with new stuff for every new movie or making sequels to their successful stuff. So I don’t know why they would change that.

Here is what Feige had to say when asked about a Marvel animated movie and whether they would use CGI or hand drawn: