Kevin Feige Talks About Marvel Movies Before the MCU and How It Was So Difficult Not to Have Control Over the Early Films

Marvel President Kevin Feige has worked hard to build a carefully constructed interwoven universe that connects all the superhero stories within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He had this vision in mind long before he was entrusted to execute it alongside many talented writers, filmmakers, crews, and stars, so he admits now that the hardest part of building that world was seeing it be misused before he could get in there and direct its path.

In the recently released tell-all book, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, (via TheDirect), Feige was quoted saying he hated Marvel Studios' lack of "control" of movies preceding the MCU. 

Prior to the MCU's 2008 kickoff with Iron Man, we saw a 2003 Hulk film, Ben Affleck's Daredevil, 2005's Fantastic Four, Elektra, Ghost Rider, and more. 

In explaining the problem with other studios owning the rights to Marvel characters, producer David Maisel referenced New Line Cinema's former ownership of Iron Man, saying:

"Your character is in limbo and somebody else controls it. When you make a movie deal for a license, you’re freezing animation, you’re freezing a lot of other things. You’re handing over your babies to somebody, and nothing happens.” 

Even so, both Avi Arad and Kevin Feige still tried to influence those productions, but not all were open to suggestions. Feige admitted, "We suggested but they didn't listen. We didn't have the control. I hated that." As further evidence of Feige's frustration, Marvel writer Craig Kyle relayed the current studio president's early efforts to "get the rights back" in order to guarantee "great movies”:

“From the moment I touched down in Marvel, Kevin had been telling Avi [Arad] we have to get the rights back. Avi was in a situation where he represented all of Marvel. He was the face of Marvel Studios. Kevin was in there to make great movies. That could never be a guarantee until we could actually control the process.”

It’s been great to see ownership of properties like X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and Deadpool end up back with Marvel, but fans are still leery about whether or not the studio can pull off another great string of movies like the Infinity Saga. I guess we will just have to wait and see.