Marvel's Kevin Feige Responds to Steven Spielberg and Zack Snyder's Superhero Movie Statements

Over the past few months, both Steven Spielberg and Zack Snyder have made comments about superhero movies. Spielberg said that they would eventually die and go the way of the western, while Snyder called Ant-Man "a flavor of the week." During an interview with IGN, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige responded to those comments. In regards to what Spielberg said, Feige offered the following:

"In 2001, 2002, 2003 there were two Marvel movies, three Marvel movies, and I still believe the same thing, which is as long as the ones that we can control are as good as they can be, that's all that I care about. I think we've been doing pretty well. I'm very confident in the films we've announced that we have coming forward that they're going to be surprising and different and unique. I've said a lot: I don't believe in the comic book genre. I don't believe in the superhero genre. I believe that each of our films can be very different.

In regards to the death of superhero film like the western, he went on to say:

"It could, but the Western lasted 40-50 years, and they still pop up occasionally. It's been, what, eight years since Iron Man 1 if we count that, which I do, as the beginning of our MCU? Maybe [the superhero genre] will only last another 42 years."

I'm happy to hear that Feige is confident in what he is planning for Marvel's film slate. As long as they keep pumping out great films, there will always be an audience for them. As far as Snyder's "flavor of the week" comment goes, Feige went on to defended the qualities of the Marvel films that make them unique:

"Those are all very different movies. They all happen to be based on Marvel characters and Marvel comics, but from a genre and a cinematic perspective, they're all very unique. Civil War may as well be a different genre from Age of Ultron.
"The way Winter Soldier was a political thriller, I think there is a more emotional and more geopolitical and real world through line through Civil War than there was in the broader Age of Ultron with the killer AI Tony Stark invention. I think it's the same thing as saying, 'I don't know how many more movies can be made from novels. I think people are going to bored with novels being turned into movies. I don't know how long it's going to last.'"

Marvel's got a great thing going right now, and I'm sure DC and Warner Bros. wish they would have come up with the Marvel formula first. WB is just barely getting started, though. It will be interesting to see when or if they finally become as established as a cinematic universe as Marvel is. I hope DC superheroes get the films they deserve. We'll find out soon enough!

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