Kevin Feige Explains Jon Favreau’s Influence on How Marvel Makes Their Movies
Marvel released their first independently made film in 2008 with Iron Man. Jon Favreau directed the film, and as you know it ended up being a big success. At the time, Marvel had no idea if it would succeed or fail. Luckily for fans, it turned out awesome, and it’s crazy to see how far the MCU has come since then. I would have never imagined then what we are seeing from Marvel now. It’s incredible! We can thank Favreau for that. If it weren’t for him, who knows where Marvel would be. The guy not only set the whole tone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he also set the tone for how Marvel would continue to make their movies.
In an interview with /Film, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige reflected back on Iron man and talked about what Favreau did for them. He said:
“Every lesson. I learned every lesson [on that movie]. I mean, that was our first movie. I have been at Marvel at 16 years now. In the first six or seven years, we were working on our films that other studios had the rights for, that other studios paid for, and that other studios had all the control over. There were a lot of great learning experiences there. There were some awesome movies in that run, and there were some movies I felt could’ve been better in that run. But we learned all sorts of lessons along the way. When we finally got to do it ourselves, it was time to put up or shut up. It was saying, ‘Everything we believe could be done with our characters, let’s put into this movie.’ If it hadn’t worked, we would’ve thought, ‘Oh, I guess our ideas maybe aren’t the right ones.’ [Laughs.] Jon helped lead the charge on that. There are a lot of the things we continue to do at the studio that Jon helped initiate. Really, it comes down to collaboration. Jon was a spectacular collaborator. Instead of just looking at designs by himself, he’d say, “Come on, everybody, let’s go in a room, put up the designs, and all talk about them.” He did his early cuts on the movie and we started submitted notes, and he said, ‘Ah, I don’t want to get all this paper. Just come in here and let’s talk about it.’ That’s how we make movies now.”
One of the other major contributions Favreau made was casting Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark. It's crazy that he had to fight for that inspired casting. Casting Downey Jr. as Stark is one of the best decisions Marvel has made.
Both Marvel and Favreau have evolved since they last worked together, but I would love to see Favreau come back to direct another Marvel movie at some point. I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon, if ever, but it would be great if it did.