Kevin Feige Credits the HARRY POTTER Films as an Inspiration for the Marvel Movies

Despite some recent chatter from certain Hollywood bigwig directors, Marvel films are breaking box office records and bringing fans to the theatre in droves. So it may make some wonder what some of the inspirations were to create the movies in the MCU the way they did. MCU President Kevin Feige recently credited the Harry Potter films as one of his inspirations.

In a recent Q&A with students at the New York Film Academy, Feige said he wanted to make movies like the Harry Potter saga. He said he had never read the books, but went and saw each movie, and loved the fact that they catered to all viewers, and now just the ones who were already familiar with the story.

He said:

I always default to my experience watching Harry Potter movies. I went to see every Harry Potter movie opening weekend. I saw it and I enjoyed it and then I forgot all about it and didn’t think about it again until the next Harry Potter movie came out. And those movies were so well made because I could follow it all. I could follow it, I could track it, occasionally I have to go, ‘Who was that?,’ but for the most part I could totally track it. Now if I had watched every movie ten times, if I had read every book, I bet there are dozens of other things in there that I would see and appreciate, but they never got in the way of me just experiencing it as a pure story. So that’s kind of what we try to navigate. If an Easter egg or a reference or something is so prevalent that it gets in the way of the story you’re telling so that people who aren’t aware of it go, ‘What is this? What’s happening?,’ then we usually pull back on it.

This makes perfect sense, seeing as how I am a Harry Potter fan, and had read the books before seeing the films. I loved the movies but was sometimes critical of what was left out. But with every Marvel movie I see, it’s a new storyline I wasn’t previously familiar with that I’m guided through. And I feel totally immersed in the Marvel world now. I know there are tons of stories and characters I don’t know, but the movies don’t make you feel that way. If they did, they wouldn’t have the worldwide, diverse fanbase they do.

via: CinemaBlend