Marvel Studios' Creative Committee Has Reportedly Been Disbanded

Yesterday, we wrote about how Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige no longer has to report to Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, and why that's a very good thing for the company moving forward. (You should read the whole piece, but the short version is that Perlmutter is the guy who gave Marvel a reputation for being cheap, since he's notoriously over the top when it comes to saving money in every conceivable way.) Now there's another bit of news that could end up meaning good news for Marvel Studios in the future: Birth Movies Death is reporting that the company's Creative Committee has been disbanded.

I didn't know it had an official name, but the Creative Committee was a group that provided notes on Marvel productions through development, including people like "Alan Fine, who came with Perlmutter to Marvel through Toy Biz, Brian Michael Bendis, who is a prolific Marvel Comics writer, Dan Buckley, publisher of Marvel Comics and Joe Quesada, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and the current Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Enterprises." BMD says the notes that drove Edgar Wright away from Ant-Man came from this group, and that they often focused on nitpicky details that didn't have anything to do with the overall tone of the films, regularly causing delays in development because it took them so long to give their notes.

So what does this mean for Marvel movie fans? Probably not much in the short term. Civil War and Doctor Strange are likely too far along to benefit from the company's newfound freedom, but the rest of Phase Three sounds like it could move forward with a purer vision from Feige and his collaborators, unencumbered by the weight of having to serve all of these different masters.

Also worth noting: BMD says that it was Perlmutter, who once worked in the toy business, who was singlehandedly stopping the production of Black Widow toys because he didn't think girl toys would sell. The 72-year-old Perlmutter seems extremely out of touch with what the fans want, but since he still controls all other Marvel divisions outside of Marvel Studios, it's unclear whether or not we'll see Black Widow merchandise ever make its way to stores.