Speaker 1: M h. You're listening to Playback, a Variety I Heart
Speaker 1: radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley.
Speaker 1: This week, on our episode, I'm talking to Kevin Figi,
Speaker 1: the president of Marvel Studios and the producer of three
Speaker 1: films from the company this year, Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War,
Speaker 1: and ant Man in the Wasp. We talked about all
Speaker 1: of it, early beginnings in the business, ten years of
Speaker 1: Marvel Studios, and a culmination with the company's most successful
Speaker 1: year to date. So sit tight, this is playback. I
Speaker 1: think we're good to go. You don't like about a podcast,
Speaker 1: but no cameras? Cameras same, I hate it when they
Speaker 1: put they try to make this video. Although I listened
Speaker 1: to your excellent interview with our friend Ryan Coogler and
Speaker 1: you said something like, you know, it's great no cameras,
Speaker 1: because he was he likes podcasts too, right, And then
Speaker 1: I heard on the podcast, oh, well, we do shoot
Speaker 1: some quick skills and when there's a camera this, who
Speaker 1: will allow it? Yeah yeah, yeah, But they're always trying
Speaker 1: to get me to turn this into video. And I'm like, no, smart,
Speaker 1: you can get a better conversation. You're totally right anyway,
Speaker 1: And here we are. I'm here today with the president
Speaker 1: of Marvel, Marvel Studios and obviously producer of Black Panther
Speaker 1: and everything coming out of the Marvel Factory these days.
Speaker 1: Kevin Faggy, thank you so much of course for taking
Speaker 1: the time. Thank you sit down with me to day.
Speaker 1: I know you moved some stuff to be here and
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you. Problem um you know, I was
Speaker 1: super interested in having you be this guest because this
Speaker 1: is my one hundred episode. Thank you, thank you so
Speaker 1: milestone for us, the last episode of the year, and
Speaker 1: you guys are in a big milestone year as well.
Speaker 1: Ten years for Marvel Studios, twenty movies. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: your biggest financial successes stateside with Black Panther and Avengers
Speaker 1: Infinity War obviously, also tons of Oscar buzz for Black Panther,
Speaker 1: well deserved, most critically acclaimed movie to come out of
Speaker 1: the Marvel Factory so far. I mean, just all these
Speaker 1: like huge benchmarks. I was like, it's got to be Kevin,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that we were able to do it.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, um so. And also the
Speaker 1: loss of the grandfather of all of this Stanley who
Speaker 1: passed recently as well. So it's just you know, we're
Speaker 1: coming to the end of this first era of Marvel Studio.
Speaker 1: So let me just kind of start there. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go back because I'd love to talk about some of
Speaker 1: your early career stuff. But how does it just kind
Speaker 1: of the hindsight feel like to you right now when
Speaker 1: you look back at what's at what's happened the last
Speaker 1: ten years, it's, uh, it's surreal. I mean it's on
Speaker 1: one uh, in one way, it's incredibly satisfying. In the
Speaker 1: other way, it's it's nearly unbelievable from where we started.
Speaker 1: And uh, and that the tenth anniversary now culminates, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, twenty films in with our best year yet.
Speaker 1: There were days when I wasn't sure we'd be able
Speaker 1: to deliver get Iron Man in theaters. There are days
Speaker 1: when I thought Avengers One was a pipe dream, and
Speaker 1: their days after Avengers One where I thought, well, where
Speaker 1: do we go? How do we how do we keep
Speaker 1: this going? And to have our most successful year yet
Speaker 1: be our tenth anniversary years pretty it is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: It's storybook In some way, it feels just like it's
Speaker 1: just an interesting thing. And I just wanted to say
Speaker 1: this number two because I did the research and hopefully
Speaker 1: I did my math right. These movies have made collectively
Speaker 1: over seventeen billion dollars worldwide. I mean this is to me,
Speaker 1: if you don't mind me saying, I kind of feel
Speaker 1: like you're the most important key figure in the film
Speaker 1: business right now because of what this company is doing
Speaker 1: and the business model you've laid out. Uh, it was radical,
Speaker 1: but also something that like fans were dying to see
Speaker 1: was all of these characters come together right for sure?
Speaker 1: And I think it's what number one. Thank you. Number two.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people both here and across
Speaker 1: the industry here at this studio, were on the Disney
Speaker 1: lot right now within the Marvel Studios offices where we
Speaker 1: are now, um that that are all equally responsible and
Speaker 1: and and our filmmakers, many of whom you've spoken to
Speaker 1: on this very podcast, who make it what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I love talking to them because they're all to
Speaker 1: a person, they have their unique styles and and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into some of that later. But first I
Speaker 1: want to go all the way back film school at
Speaker 1: USC That is, way back I went to USC for
Speaker 1: grad school for journalism. I went to film school back
Speaker 1: in North Carolina. What what? What did you want out
Speaker 1: of film school? Did you go in wanting to be
Speaker 1: a director? Did you was producing kind of the thing
Speaker 1: you were aiming for? What? Did? What did you? I didn't?
Speaker 1: I wanted to. I think everybody goes and wanting to
Speaker 1: be a director. Yeah, maybe that's not true, but I
Speaker 1: think it is, and I think and I remember there
Speaker 1: there were the few people you'd meet who wanted to
Speaker 1: be who would say. People would say, I want to
Speaker 1: be director. I want to be director. I want to
Speaker 1: be George Lucas, I want to be Steven Spielberg, I
Speaker 1: want to be Robert Zamakis. I want to be Ron Howard.
Speaker 1: I want to be John Singleton. Those were the people,
Speaker 1: Those were the big names when I was going to
Speaker 1: USC and before I went to UC and why I
Speaker 1: wanted to go to USC, but I always was. I
Speaker 1: admired the few people who would say, I want to
Speaker 1: be an editor, Brian want to go into sound design,
Speaker 1: because they all were hyper focused and all did and succeeded,
Speaker 1: as opposed to not everybody who says they want to
Speaker 1: be a director. But what I really wanted to be
Speaker 1: was just involved creatively in movies. That's what I wanted
Speaker 1: to be. So from my earliest days at SC, I
Speaker 1: was excited. Even before I got into the film school,
Speaker 1: which I didn't get into for two and a half years,
Speaker 1: uh until my junior year at SC, I was just
Speaker 1: excited to be a p A on student films. I
Speaker 1: was excited to be a part of it in any
Speaker 1: way I could. Where did that stem from, Like what's
Speaker 1: earliest kind of memories of film and being drawn to
Speaker 1: film and and wanting to be a part of the
Speaker 1: movie business. Like what was lighting that spark? I think
Speaker 1: it's just early experiences of going to movies and being
Speaker 1: transported by movies. Um Pete Dragon was the first film
Speaker 1: I ever went to see and it was a fun
Speaker 1: event and we drove there. My mother drove me to
Speaker 1: the first time we were going to see a movie
Speaker 1: just for me, just because it was it was a
Speaker 1: kids film that I could go see. And we missed
Speaker 1: the showing. This was before obviously long before uh buying
Speaker 1: tickets on your phone and getting reserving your seat. You
Speaker 1: go to the theater and you even we either had
Speaker 1: missed the showtime or something, and I was quite sad
Speaker 1: about it, but we decided, now we're gonna go home.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make a tuna fish sandwich and put in
Speaker 1: tinfoil and then drive back to the to the later showing.
Speaker 1: And it was probably don't remember exactly, it was probably
Speaker 1: later than I was usually out of the house at
Speaker 1: that time. And uh, I love the movie and the
Speaker 1: kid was riding on a cartoon dragon. It was pretty
Speaker 1: much pretty cool. Um. And then of course getting into
Speaker 1: films that even transcended the theater like Star Wars, uh,
Speaker 1: where I would buy the toys and I would play
Speaker 1: with them in my backyard and I would make up
Speaker 1: my own stories um or Dick Donner's Superman film um
Speaker 1: or the Back to the Future films, These films that
Speaker 1: would transport me during the experience of watching the movie,
Speaker 1: but also I would they would they would come home
Speaker 1: with me, and I would continue to think about them
Speaker 1: and can continue to analyze them. And I always loved
Speaker 1: movies that rewarded you the more you watch them. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of Donner, there you I believe the kind of
Speaker 1: door opening for you into the business. Was working with
Speaker 1: Lauren Shuler Donner and was in movies like You've Got Mail,
Speaker 1: and you worked on one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies,
Speaker 1: frankly Volcano. Oh my goodness. Yes, I'm such a fan
Speaker 1: of Volcano. I mean, when I first came to l A,
Speaker 1: my eyes were wide open in a way because like,
Speaker 1: Volcano is like an l A like tour in a way.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, that was from that's from Volcano. Anyway,
Speaker 1: You're the first person ever to tell me, I imagine,
Speaker 1: So tell me a story about Volcano. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear anything that comes to most. Volcano was great, I was.
Speaker 1: I got into the film school my second semester junior year,
Speaker 1: and I noticed within the first few weeks that the
Speaker 1: smart people were getting internships, and we're interning going to
Speaker 1: work for free at the time, at at companies, and
Speaker 1: a lot of them were working at places I'd never
Speaker 1: heard of. And I thought, well, I I want to
Speaker 1: I want to do that. I want to go I'm
Speaker 1: happy to go work for for free, but I want
Speaker 1: to do it for for a for a place I knew.
Speaker 1: And I went up into the old which is no
Speaker 1: longer there George Lucas Building at SC where they posted
Speaker 1: again this is pre internet, posted literally on a bulletin
Speaker 1: board UM available internships, and I saw a one that
Speaker 1: said Donna Schuler Donner Productions, and I this was the
Speaker 1: director of Superman. I couldn't believe it. UM, and was
Speaker 1: lucky enough to get that, to get that internship. And
Speaker 1: I was there for a very long time for a
Speaker 1: year or so as an intern for summers or receptionist.
Speaker 1: And then my final semester at sc I will I
Speaker 1: worked there part time as a as a p A
Speaker 1: and then very uh, I was very lucky that Lauren
Speaker 1: hired me to be her assistant. And there was a
Speaker 1: lot of sitting at a desk, and I'm not good
Speaker 1: at sitting at a desk. UM. But within about I
Speaker 1: think five four or five months of of my the
Speaker 1: beginning of me working there full time, Laura Ziskin, who
Speaker 1: ran I want to say Fox two thousand at the time,
Speaker 1: UH called Lauren said I have this movie Volcano. There's
Speaker 1: a new young producer named Neil Moritz, and I want
Speaker 1: a more experienced producer to come in and and how
Speaker 1: about as well? That ended up being Volcano, And within
Speaker 1: a day I'm suddenly in a production office on the
Speaker 1: twentieth Century Lot, not knowing anything about really how to
Speaker 1: U how to uh assistant producer on a on a
Speaker 1: movie Trial by Fire. Yeah, and it was great. Uh.
Speaker 1: I always say it was a very very fun movie
Speaker 1: to make, and maybe not quite as fun a movie
Speaker 1: to watch, but I appreciate that you uh, then you
Speaker 1: go for it. I'm a fan. We rebuilt in torrent
Speaker 1: in an old parking lot. I can't remember. It was
Speaker 1: some some big industrial parking lot in Torrance, California. They
Speaker 1: rebuilt that section of Wilshire Boulevard that the lava comes
Speaker 1: out of. So it was an entire replica, almost full
Speaker 1: scale replica from Fairfax Too, Librey or whatever it was
Speaker 1: um with the tar pits, with what is now becoming
Speaker 1: the Academy Museum, with the Peterson Automotive Museum, all there
Speaker 1: in a parking lot in Torrance, night after night after night.
Speaker 1: I always just thought they had somehow filmed that Nope
Speaker 1: there that it was really it was really fun to
Speaker 1: work on. And of course years later you remember the
Speaker 1: star of that film, time Only Jones. Another star of
Speaker 1: that film a young Don Cheetle, both of whom I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to go on to to work with.
Speaker 1: In Marvel Films, and both of whom upon first meeting,
Speaker 1: I went, you know, we we've actually worked together before.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well what Volcano? Then you gotta bring up Volcano? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That one. No, I like it. Man, it's better than
Speaker 1: Dante's Peak. That was the big, big race. Uh. Speaking
Speaker 1: about Lauren Shuler Donner, I'm I'm reminded now Jeff John's
Speaker 1: work started working Jeff and I. Jeff and I were
Speaker 1: either interns together or I was a receptionist and he
Speaker 1: became an intern. But I was Laurence assistant. He was
Speaker 1: Dick's assistant at the same time. That's fascinating. Um, well,
Speaker 1: you know, just to skip ahead of bit, then you
Speaker 1: go to Marvel. Uh. In two thousand, I think you
Speaker 1: get hired at Marvel. Lauren was a producer on X Men,
Speaker 1: and I had done Volcano with her and You've Got
Speaker 1: Mail with her, both great movies, great experience of movies.
Speaker 1: And You've Got Man was a very good movie. Um,
Speaker 1: but not the movies I had dreamed of of making. Really,
Speaker 1: I had just dreamed of being a part of the movie.
Speaker 1: So I had succeeded in my dream at that point
Speaker 1: because I was there, Uh, making those films and and
Speaker 1: and even getting to uh to work with nor Ephron
Speaker 1: Uh was was astounding and amazing. But she had a
Speaker 1: script that I was interested in, and I started working
Speaker 1: on and doing notes on, and that was what became
Speaker 1: the first X Men film. So I worked on that.
Speaker 1: She made me an associate producer on that film and
Speaker 1: worked on it, I think for about three years. It
Speaker 1: sort of went up and down um a few times
Speaker 1: before it actually came together. And it was during that
Speaker 1: time that I got to know Avia Rod, who was
Speaker 1: a producer on the film and who at the time
Speaker 1: ran what was what was sometimes called Marvel Media, sometimes
Speaker 1: called Marvel Films, and sometimes called Marvel Studios. This is
Speaker 1: back in the sin Escape magazine days as well. I'm
Speaker 1: reading in the back of sin Escape Magazine, like do
Speaker 1: Gray Scott's gonna play Wolverine? And obviously but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well very very exciting time. I mean, you you come in,
Speaker 1: you start with X Men, and then Spider Man is
Speaker 1: not long after that. I mean, I'm in film school
Speaker 1: during these movies, and when Spider Man opens to a
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen million or whatever it was, it was
Speaker 1: a huge deal. And I remember it was something we
Speaker 1: were all talking about. What I wanted to ask you, though,
Speaker 1: was you know what did you start to realize that
Speaker 1: early about the potential of these properties in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: I didn't think about the marketplace too much, but I
Speaker 1: did think about the potential for the stories I did.
Speaker 1: I did uh read comics when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: but I was really much more of a movie goer
Speaker 1: and a movie fan. So when we were working on
Speaker 1: X Men and Studio would have notes or in the
Speaker 1: brain trust as it was called, sitting in a room
Speaker 1: with the director and the other producers and the writer
Speaker 1: um trying to find solutions to two ideas that we
Speaker 1: were struggling with in the script. I would always go
Speaker 1: dig through the books and always find answers, and always
Speaker 1: find something that was frankly amazing. I can't think of
Speaker 1: a particular example by it. I learned early on that
Speaker 1: the richness of character, or the complexity of storytelling, or
Speaker 1: the multiple dynamics you want in a in a protagonist
Speaker 1: or an antagonists are there in the books. They're there,
Speaker 1: and it seems I would hope that seems kind of
Speaker 1: a dumb observation or an obvious one. Trust me, it
Speaker 1: was not obvious too many people, uh working on those
Speaker 1: films at the time. Now about just the progression of
Speaker 1: those early movies before the Marvel Studios of it all.
Speaker 1: You know, you go on, There's There's Daredevil, There's Wholk
Speaker 1: and Fantastic four. I mean, what lessons were you kind
Speaker 1: of personally learning about this? I was talking about this
Speaker 1: the other day with somebody I remember who, but it
Speaker 1: really is. I think in a million years nobody would
Speaker 1: actively plan to build a studio the way Marvel Studios
Speaker 1: was built. But in hindsight, it was remarkably effective and
Speaker 1: very perfect because we got to work at almost every
Speaker 1: studio in town except Warner Brothers because they have DC
Speaker 1: and Disney. Those were the only two I had worked at.
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers with the Donners um, but Warners and Disney
Speaker 1: were the only studios that that I didn't work with
Speaker 1: every other studio we developed or produced films with, So
Speaker 1: we got to see the inner workings at the upper
Speaker 1: levels of almost every studio in town and really got
Speaker 1: to learn amazing lessons from the inside. Ways that you know,
Speaker 1: we thought were good, um examples of how to make
Speaker 1: a movie, perhaps ways that we're not as good um
Speaker 1: to make a movie. So when we ended up taking
Speaker 1: advantage of UH the the pre two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: market crash and got financing from Mary Lynch which v
Speaker 1: Rod and David Mazell put together UM and got a
Speaker 1: half a billion dollars in financing for ten characters that
Speaker 1: Marvel did not put money into this venture, but they
Speaker 1: put the film rights to characters on the line. UH.
Speaker 1: I was very excited because at that point I was
Speaker 1: very very ready to have the creative authority. We weren't
Speaker 1: sure we could do it, but we were sure that
Speaker 1: we had learned enough good ways bad ways ways that
Speaker 1: we thought, finally, let's go with our own instincts how
Speaker 1: to make it. What was the specific like vision instinct
Speaker 1: that you what, what was it that was driving you
Speaker 1: saying you were ready to jump in and do this?
Speaker 1: Well there, I mean there were very very very positive
Speaker 1: experiences and those in those call it five years leading
Speaker 1: up to us UH become our own studio, where there
Speaker 1: were great examples. You look at some of the movies
Speaker 1: made in that in that period, the first two X
Speaker 1: Men films, the first few UH Sam Rami Spiderman films,
Speaker 1: amazing films with amazing filmmakers that just being in a
Speaker 1: room with Sam Raimi and watching him put a movie
Speaker 1: together was the best film school that I ever that
Speaker 1: I've ever had, watching Amy Pascal running um uh sony
Speaker 1: then and how and how great decisions can be made
Speaker 1: and how trust and filmmakers can pay off on the
Speaker 1: foot end of that. And I'm not going to be specific,
Speaker 1: but you can see movies made in that period that
Speaker 1: we're not as good as the other ones. And there
Speaker 1: were reasons for that as well, and it often came
Speaker 1: down to simply, in my opinion, not trusting the source material,
Speaker 1: or not trusting the audience, or or being fearful of
Speaker 1: the worst version because and I'm sure this is true
Speaker 1: of any story from any source material, but certainly if
Speaker 1: you don't if you don't do it well, some of
Speaker 1: these characters can come off as goofy in a movie,
Speaker 1: or some of these concepts could come off as silly. Um.
Speaker 1: The trick is to do them well, but not be
Speaker 1: but not be fearful about it. And so when we
Speaker 1: when we started putting Iron Man one together, and Jon
Speaker 1: Favreau obviously very much believed in this and is a master,
Speaker 1: a tonal master at at um being able to achieve
Speaker 1: UM a balance of of of pathos and humor and action. Uh.
Speaker 1: At every turn, we we just did what we thought
Speaker 1: would we could do well, what we thought could be cool.
Speaker 1: Well you when whenever, yeah, when when the whole thing
Speaker 1: starts to come together, you have an Incredible Hulk and
Speaker 1: Iron Man in two thousand and eight. I mean this
Speaker 1: is ten years ago. What I'm curious about is you
Speaker 1: know where things are at now versus what your vision
Speaker 1: going forward was then? Like how did things change? How?
Speaker 1: Because I imagine you come into it with a certain idea,
Speaker 1: a certain road map of where you'd like to take this.
Speaker 1: This what's going to be a huge overarching story. But
Speaker 1: anything profoundly different now from what you set out to
Speaker 1: do at that time. Uh, it is. It has simply
Speaker 1: succeeded beyond our our wildest dreams. The dream, as I
Speaker 1: had said earlier, was getting Iron Man in The Incredible
Speaker 1: Hulk into theaters, going from being fully responsible for zero
Speaker 1: movies a year too, fully responsible for two movies in
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, in movies that we wanted to represent,
Speaker 1: a new tone and a tone that we believed would
Speaker 1: be the best way to uh, to bring the characters
Speaker 1: to the screen. The dream for years and years was
Speaker 1: to replicate the experience for a global audience that comic
Speaker 1: book fans had been had been enjoined for decades, which
Speaker 1: was that shared universe, which was not my idea, which
Speaker 1: was not a revolutionary idea. It was it was Stanley
Speaker 1: and Steve Dicko and Jack Kirby's idea in the Marvel
Speaker 1: Bullpen to combine all the characters because it was a
Speaker 1: relatively small group of people working on a lot of characters.
Speaker 1: That's what we are now at Marvel Studios, and and
Speaker 1: I just thought it would be a lot of fun
Speaker 1: to be able to h across these characters into each
Speaker 1: other's movies. And that's why we had the Sam Jackson
Speaker 1: cameo at the end of at the end of Ironman.
Speaker 1: We did it a because Sam is a big fan
Speaker 1: and was gracious enough to come in and shoot it
Speaker 1: for us, and we put at the end of the
Speaker 1: credits because we didn't want it to uh interrupt the
Speaker 1: experience of the Tony Stark story that we were telling.
Speaker 1: And we thought it would be a wink to fans
Speaker 1: to say, hey, look what we could do if this
Speaker 1: If this works, it ended up connecting with much more
Speaker 1: than just fans, ended up connecting with with almost everybody
Speaker 1: saw the movie. Um, much faster than I thought it would.
Speaker 1: That's what's fascinating about that little scene at the end
Speaker 1: there you go back and you look at it. I
Speaker 1: mean that there's no guarantee that what happened is going
Speaker 1: to happen. And we didn't even have a deal with
Speaker 1: Sam Jackson beyond that. Yeah, was there just like I mean,
Speaker 1: what happened if those movies had failed? Like, was there, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: we might end up pulling the plug on this thing
Speaker 1: we want to do because it might not take I mean,
Speaker 1: was that like in the area? Sure, Um, I don't
Speaker 1: take many vacations. This is I have a lot of
Speaker 1: fun doing what I'm doing. But in the summer of
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, uh that I had scheduled a vacation
Speaker 1: for August. I think it was. It was sort of
Speaker 1: a it was a pseudo honeymoon. I got married in
Speaker 1: in March of two thou so I decided, well, I
Speaker 1: may as well schedule a vacation for August because these
Speaker 1: movies will either not work and I'll have a lot
Speaker 1: of time on my hands or they will work and
Speaker 1: I won't have much time in the future. So it
Speaker 1: really was we didn't spend a lot of time thinking
Speaker 1: about what if we fail. We spend all the time
Speaker 1: thinking about how can we succeed? But yeah, there would
Speaker 1: not be a studio if the Fireman and Hall had
Speaker 1: not worked. Well, I mean, you know, I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: like whether pay or play deals involved or you'd have
Speaker 1: been kind of screwed on the profound level, like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't think I don't remember, No, I
Speaker 1: don't think so And happy tenth belated tenth anniversary there,
Speaker 1: thanking you and your wife. Um, But that was same
Speaker 1: thing with Avengers, by the way, Yeah, which was if
Speaker 1: Ironman and to answer your other question, if iron Man
Speaker 1: HAULK hadn't worked, we wouldn't have a studio. If four
Speaker 1: and Captain America hadn't worked, Avengers would have been a
Speaker 1: much more difficult cell because we were basing that movie
Speaker 1: on on those characters and on Loki the villain from four.
Speaker 1: What has been like the biggest speed bump along the
Speaker 1: way or series of speed ups, anything that comes to
Speaker 1: mind that like really kind of stopped you or did
Speaker 1: or once it took off. Was it just a runaway
Speaker 1: locomotive at that point, It's it's pretty much been a locomotive. Um.
Speaker 1: And there are as I'm sure there are on any film,
Speaker 1: but dozens, if not hundreds of speed bumps along the
Speaker 1: way as you are trying to bring something to life.
Speaker 1: The best part is the success has encouraged us to
Speaker 1: to keep moving forward with our plans, our plans of
Speaker 1: this shared universe, our plans of bringing all sorts of
Speaker 1: different types of characters to the screen. And the success
Speaker 1: is also enabled and and uh uh, the unbelievable part
Speaker 1: of being UM with the Walt Disney Company when that
Speaker 1: happened was having the support of of Bob Iger of
Speaker 1: Alan Horne, who at every turn encourage us to go
Speaker 1: further and encourage us to take more risks. And it
Speaker 1: really is. It does seem like success should not trap
Speaker 1: you into repeating yourself. Success should embolden you to keep
Speaker 1: trying new things. Uh. I want to talk about some
Speaker 1: of these directors that you've you've tapped along the way.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, just for the next movie coming
Speaker 1: up with Captain Marvel, Boding and Fleck. You know, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite movie is recently with Sugar. I love
Speaker 1: those guys. Uh, you know Coogler, Chloe Joe coming up,
Speaker 1: James Gunn. A lot of these folks came from the
Speaker 1: indie world, and I'm just curious what the what the
Speaker 1: thinking is with the hiring on on on these uh,
Speaker 1: very separate, very different voices that you've had along the way.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it goes back to to, uh,
Speaker 1: to my early days at Marvel and seeing um decisions
Speaker 1: that I did not make or were not a part of.
Speaker 1: But seeing twenty Century Fox hiring Brian Singer on the
Speaker 1: first X Men, seeing Sony hire Sam Raimi on the
Speaker 1: first Spider Man film. Those were both very, very good
Speaker 1: filmmakers who had done very good films, not action films,
Speaker 1: not big giant special effect films, but very good films
Speaker 1: that were clever and authentic and unique in their own way.
Speaker 1: And that those voices translated to these to these bigger films.
Speaker 1: So when we were looking for a filmmaker on the
Speaker 1: first Iron Man, it seemed it seemed like the way
Speaker 1: to go. And and when John came in and was
Speaker 1: so enthusiastic about it and had done a movie which
Speaker 1: at the time was a little successful movie called Elf
Speaker 1: and now is a big Christmas classic. And there's a
Speaker 1: giant billboard on Sunset Boulevard UH today that says Elf
Speaker 1: is on hooray. Um and is a and as a
Speaker 1: and as a Christmas classic. UM but I was very
Speaker 1: pressed with that film going back to tone that could
Speaker 1: have been silly comedy. It is an excellent, excellent movie
Speaker 1: with by the way, an excellent use of visual effects.
Speaker 1: UM And John is a very smart man and speaks
Speaker 1: with great confidence. And we add is a is a
Speaker 1: fan of film and a fan of these types of film,
Speaker 1: a fan of entertaining films. Um And had done a
Speaker 1: film called Zathura so had some visual effect experience. UM
Speaker 1: now is arguably the greatest filmmaker of pioneering visual effects
Speaker 1: there is. UM. We had them on the show for
Speaker 1: a Jungle Book Amazing and and and and Lion King
Speaker 1: and Mandalorian Um so we always believed and it and
Speaker 1: and it has worked and uh starting with John and
Speaker 1: up up to uh Bote and Fleck that when you
Speaker 1: bring in people with creative chops and with something to
Speaker 1: say and with a unique vision, UM, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if they haven't uh worked with the technical aspects of
Speaker 1: of of a large motion picture. Yeah. Uh it also,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess it's a dose of prestige as
Speaker 1: well for a genre that, let's face it, some people
Speaker 1: have biases against for whatever reasons. Um, why do you
Speaker 1: think it is that, you know, movies like comic book
Speaker 1: movies or sci fi or what have you, are they're
Speaker 1: not really taken seriously in their time. A lot of
Speaker 1: the times, I think they are taken seriously by a
Speaker 1: lot of people. I think you're asking about people that
Speaker 1: vote on awards and and things like that. I think
Speaker 1: they're taken seriously by a lot of people, which is
Speaker 1: thankfully why they succeed and why people anticipate that the
Speaker 1: next ones. Um as I as I did when I
Speaker 1: was a kid growing up, waiting for these next movies,
Speaker 1: having my mom driving to the movie theater to see
Speaker 1: the teaser poster of my new favorite movie coming out
Speaker 1: because you couldn't see them online like you can now. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's the question. I you know, I
Speaker 1: remember Star Wars was nominated for Best Picture, and I
Speaker 1: think Close Encounters was, and I and and uh and
Speaker 1: I think it was et nominated. Yeah, it just sort
Speaker 1: of I guess it just sort of reminds me of
Speaker 1: like certain serialized filmmaking that like you know, I think
Speaker 1: of like the Westerns of of of It's a Day
Speaker 1: for instance. Uh. That just it takes some time for
Speaker 1: certain minds to look back at it and say that
Speaker 1: was an important pop cultural thing, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. Uh, when we're not you know,
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity to to to make films where
Speaker 1: we want to make them with people that we want
Speaker 1: to make them with. It's so um, it's so satisfying,
Speaker 1: and it's it takes its requires so much effort, but
Speaker 1: it's so satisfying, and then when the audience responds to it,
Speaker 1: then that's all that. I mean, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that's all that. That's what's pretty. That's pretty,
Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing. And and certainly what's happening now with
Speaker 1: Panther is very very special and means so much to us,
Speaker 1: um because Ryan Coogler, I know you've spoken to um
Speaker 1: and everybody associated with that movie poured their heart and
Speaker 1: soul in as everybody does who works on any movie
Speaker 1: of ours, but that in particular with what Ryan was doing,
Speaker 1: what Ryan had to say, and Ryan vouching for UH
Speaker 1: crew members that we had not worked with before but
Speaker 1: that he believed in and who came in and blew
Speaker 1: us away with initial sort of presentations to get the job.
Speaker 1: It's the ultimate example of all of that, I think,
Speaker 1: I mean across the board and two. And not only
Speaker 1: for them to have stepped up UH to play the
Speaker 1: bat I'm not good at sports metaphors, and then knocking
Speaker 1: out of the park the way they did is is
Speaker 1: incredible in the fact that the world responded to it
Speaker 1: the way they did. And you know, this movie has
Speaker 1: a lot on its mind. I mean, to say the least.
Speaker 1: Somebody recently I just said this on the podcast. The
Speaker 1: other days people hearing it again, but I will say
Speaker 1: it again. Somebody was like, superhero movies are made for
Speaker 1: teenagers and kids, and I'm like, well, what who do
Speaker 1: they make movies for that are about centering a conversation
Speaker 1: about growing up with systemic oppression versus growing up with,
Speaker 1: as Michael B. Jordan's told me, a tribe that is
Speaker 1: supporting you and instilling you with positivity. Who are those
Speaker 1: movies made for? I mean, it's just an absurd thing
Speaker 1: to say whenever you've got a movie like this that
Speaker 1: is so dense on the page and what in the ideas,
Speaker 1: it's kind of chewing on right. So I think that's
Speaker 1: goes a long way towards why it's your most acclaimed
Speaker 1: movie to date. And well, I think that goes back
Speaker 1: to right number one. I think that what kind of
Speaker 1: people who are just going to dismiss things out right
Speaker 1: there's not much to say or or worth saying. Um.
Speaker 1: I love this genre of of storytelling because it can
Speaker 1: say things in a way that are as truthful and
Speaker 1: emotional as anything else. But when you present them in
Speaker 1: a way that's also entertaining, you're going to get that message.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get what you have to say out to
Speaker 1: a lot more people. And that's what's the I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what The Twilight Zone did, That's what Star Trek did.
Speaker 1: I mean that those were the things that I that
Speaker 1: I loved, That's what that's what Marvel Comics did and
Speaker 1: continue to do. Ah. But I think you it comes
Speaker 1: down to Ryan Coogler, and it comes down to a
Speaker 1: filmmaker who has such a deft hand at being able
Speaker 1: to balance in action sequence something that is going to
Speaker 1: have entertainment value around the world with being true to
Speaker 1: his soul and being true to the questions that he
Speaker 1: has growing up, which I know he talked about on
Speaker 1: this show. And by the way, one of the nicest
Speaker 1: people that you can remains incredibly humble and incredibly enthusiastic,
Speaker 1: and the way we try to be, the way the
Speaker 1: people we work with are. It's just about the work.
Speaker 1: It's just about the work. Absolutely. Um. I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of just briefly jump back to the beginning. I'm
Speaker 1: curious about aesthetics always when I'm talking to creators on
Speaker 1: this show and whenever you're diving into building the Marvel
Speaker 1: Cinematic universe, you can go a couple of different ways
Speaker 1: with what it's gonna look like, right, So I'm just
Speaker 1: curious like what those conversations were early on and how
Speaker 1: that evolved, just you know, in terms of how things
Speaker 1: are going to look, costumes, production design, how it's all
Speaker 1: going to be of a holistic piece. Uh. Truth is
Speaker 1: it was all It was really filmed by film. I
Speaker 1: think I think people make a set of connections more
Speaker 1: just because the same logos in front of all those films. Um,
Speaker 1: it really was filmed by film. I member when we
Speaker 1: hit iron Man one was released. I think it was
Speaker 1: after that first weekend that we announced um, iron In too,
Speaker 1: Thor Captain America and Avengers, and then we were going
Speaker 1: to build them all, intertwine them all leading up to Avengers.
Speaker 1: And two things struck me about that. One was I
Speaker 1: thought it was the greatest thing ever and it was
Speaker 1: like a blurb in the trades. Nobody cared, nobody cared
Speaker 1: um or nobody believes apologize. I wouldn't here it is
Speaker 1: we announced that chirp, chirp. Oh. I guess we just
Speaker 1: have to do it. Um. The other thing was there
Speaker 1: were people who would say how in the word, either
Speaker 1: to me or in the in the early years of
Speaker 1: of film blogging the film a lot of film blockers
Speaker 1: got it to be fair early on, but the question
Speaker 1: of how in the world is a Norse god from
Speaker 1: an alien planet going to fit into the world of
Speaker 1: Tony Stark established an iron Man and my answer was always, well,
Speaker 1: that's you gotta watch the movie. That's what the that's
Speaker 1: what the film is going to be about. UM. My
Speaker 1: other the real answer was I'm not sure. We better
Speaker 1: figure it out, but we didn't want to and we
Speaker 1: know it would be about the story of him being
Speaker 1: banished to Earth and finding and finding humility, going from
Speaker 1: this pompous god to this to this humble hero. Um.
Speaker 1: But at the same time we didn't want to. I'm
Speaker 1: always disappointed in the movies that suggests a fantastic world
Speaker 1: just beyond the horizon that you never see. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I'm buying a ticket to see it. I'm buying a
Speaker 1: ticket to go there, so please take me there. And
Speaker 1: that's why, certainly with that movie it was about it
Speaker 1: was about going there and unabattledly as guardian battles and
Speaker 1: fun uh mythological creatures, but at the same time introducing
Speaker 1: for to the to the planet Earth. So so aesthetically,
Speaker 1: if a style has evolved, it has evolved in actually
Speaker 1: over the course of all these of all these films,
Speaker 1: um but always with the needs of the film that
Speaker 1: we're making at the time, at the forefront and drawing
Speaker 1: from the page, I imagine is some way as well.
Speaker 1: I mean, were there any obviously the classic founders of
Speaker 1: these these characters were a part of it, but like
Speaker 1: curious if any contemporary artists were without questions, without question
Speaker 1: and and and it always you know, movies always start
Speaker 1: with a with a blank page. Ours do as well,
Speaker 1: but we have the luxury of a blank page with
Speaker 1: a giant stack of comics next to it. UM, So
Speaker 1: there are too many to name. I know you spoke
Speaker 1: with Tyka about Jack Kirby, which was a huge reference
Speaker 1: point for all of Ragnarok, a huge reference point for
Speaker 1: many of our movies, but most directly for Ragnarok. UM
Speaker 1: Warren Ellison Adi Granoff's run on iron Man was very
Speaker 1: influential if you go back and look iron Man essentially
Speaker 1: this I'm being reductive, but essentially was a man in
Speaker 1: gold Heights and kind of read reddish uh vest and
Speaker 1: underwear right until Audi turned it into more dimensionalized armor.
Speaker 1: And that was our starting point for then Phil Saunders
Speaker 1: and and uh and Ryder in to to adapt it
Speaker 1: to the to the screen. UM. The comic book series
Speaker 1: The Ultimates huge influence on the the That's what I
Speaker 1: was kind of getting at, because that's what that's what
Speaker 1: I took from it early on quite a bit was
Speaker 1: because I was not any specific stories that I can
Speaker 1: think of, but uh, textually, certainly Sam Jackson is Nick
Speaker 1: Fury without question came from that. UM Widow and Hawkeye
Speaker 1: also very much inspired, um aesthetically from that from that
Speaker 1: paramilitary Yeah, Um, we're going into Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame,
Speaker 1: the twenty one and twenty second movies of this uh,
Speaker 1: initial era. I guess you can call it an area.
Speaker 1: You can't call it a phase anymore. No, you're exactly right,
Speaker 1: it's an era. Uh, you know you're a steel trap.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna try to get you to tell me anything,
Speaker 1: but judging by this trailer that just dropped recently, it
Speaker 1: looks like aunt Man is going to be kind of important.
Speaker 1: So what will you tell me about expectations on drawing
Speaker 1: this to a close, this first era of Marvel Studios
Speaker 1: movies to a close while we've been working on we did.
Speaker 1: We did Infinity War and Endgame at the same time,
Speaker 1: developed them, shot them. Uh. We then obviously finished Infinity
Speaker 1: War first. But it's been those have been the longest
Speaker 1: jest stating movies we've ever we've ever made four years
Speaker 1: now for almost five years, UM, and it was always
Speaker 1: about delivering. It was always about delivering on the promise
Speaker 1: that we had that we had set up UM and
Speaker 1: the way the world received Infinity War Um was amazing.
Speaker 1: It was exactly what we wanted in that ending, which
Speaker 1: we've been working on for many years. And uh, and
Speaker 1: I do remember, you know, people on all of the
Speaker 1: movies we've made it I'm sure on many movies we
Speaker 1: will make in the future. Uh. Whenever the good guy wins,
Speaker 1: which is often good guy, good good, good, good woman,
Speaker 1: good hero wins, Uh, they go kind of predictable good
Speaker 1: guy wins. Well sometimes that's that's fun. But for years
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, I wonder what they're gonna do when
Speaker 1: they don't, because we knew that was coming. And uh,
Speaker 1: it couldn't been better. The reaction was the best. Reaction
Speaker 1: was the best. Ye. So uh no, I won't tell
Speaker 1: you anything obviously, but but we feel the we feel
Speaker 1: the pressure of of delivering and that doesn't and deliver
Speaker 1: and expectations but in unexpected ways. Uh. And then after
Speaker 1: that from there, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Eternals
Speaker 1: and with Chloe gil directing and Black Widow with Kate
Speaker 1: Shortland will be going into production production right The only
Speaker 1: thing we've officially actually announced after after Avengers Endgame is
Speaker 1: the Spider Man movie that we're working on now. Spider
Speaker 1: Man Far from Home. There are other things in development.
Speaker 1: There are other filmmakers which you just named, who are
Speaker 1: working on things in development. But when and where and
Speaker 1: how and why we haven't we haven't discussed yet. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's fair to say that that we will keep
Speaker 1: making films after Endgame and Inspirement Far from Home. You're
Speaker 1: just gonna and walcome. Yes, that's just hanging up. Uh. Well,
Speaker 1: should we know the the way we want to the
Speaker 1: way we want to do it is sort of the
Speaker 1: way we've done up to now, which is which is
Speaker 1: as I said before, in unexpected ways, continuing to bring
Speaker 1: characters to the screen that you haven't seen before. Um,
Speaker 1: while at the same time seeing news stories and new
Speaker 1: ways of the of the hears you already know. Well,
Speaker 1: keep notion here with these two filmmakers just mentioned to
Speaker 1: women fronting these movies, I mean, is that going to
Speaker 1: be a very important thing for the studio going forward? Yes,
Speaker 1: parody absolutely it what we is and and people have asked,
Speaker 1: sometimes very directly so as panther one off, in terms
Speaker 1: of in terms of inclusion representation, and the answer is no,
Speaker 1: it's the beginning, uh that it worked out as well
Speaker 1: as it worked out is just UM again encourages to
Speaker 1: head the direction we're gonna head anyway. But you look
Speaker 1: at that film and the experience of that film, and
Speaker 1: Ryan spoke to you about it, it was incredible. I
Speaker 1: mean that movie, that movie obviously would not have been
Speaker 1: what it was if everybody's sitting around the table looked
Speaker 1: like me or you. And that's actually true for all
Speaker 1: the movies the more and and as Marvel Studios has grown,
Speaker 1: and as our creative UM internal creative team has grown, UM,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing. It's almost it's almost half men
Speaker 1: half women now UM. I think that will get even
Speaker 1: that will that may become more women. Frankly in the
Speaker 1: coming years, based on the based on the UM UH
Speaker 1: news team members who continue to grow. We try to
Speaker 1: grow and promote in house. Almost everybody that works around
Speaker 1: me has worked here for many many years, and UH
Speaker 1: and people who were going on to produce some of
Speaker 1: our next films UM came in below the people that
Speaker 1: are producing the films now. I very much believe in that.
Speaker 1: And and when you have diverse voices, you get better stories,
Speaker 1: and you get and you get more exciting stories, and
Speaker 1: you get more UM surprising stories and that is something that, uh,
Speaker 1: it's very very clear to us. And regarding the notion
Speaker 1: of Black Panther being a one off inclusion wise, obviously not.
Speaker 1: But I am actually curious. I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 1: you expected the level of success that greeted that film.
Speaker 1: So were was that as a franchise property always in
Speaker 1: play or was it kind of meant to be this
Speaker 1: world that you were going to develop and that was
Speaker 1: gonna be crucial to things going forward? But maybe it
Speaker 1: would just be one Black Panther movie and that was it.
Speaker 1: So you kind of let the audience tell you, is
Speaker 1: what I'm kind of saying, because when you get that course,
Speaker 1: it ultimately comes down to the audience telling us. Um.
Speaker 1: But because we have such amazing source material and we
Speaker 1: have such a rich um selection of amazing stories going
Speaker 1: back decades and decades, we always have other ideas. We
Speaker 1: always have have thoughts on where we could go, and
Speaker 1: we've been very lucky to this point that every film
Speaker 1: we've made, UM, we've been able to make another one.
Speaker 1: So we have high expectations every time we make a movie,
Speaker 1: including Black Panther. Those expectations were far surpassed. UM. But
Speaker 1: the goal is always to create a character or, in
Speaker 1: the case of Black Panther, a world that is so
Speaker 1: that is so rich and is so um exciting to
Speaker 1: audiences that they that they want to go back. And
Speaker 1: I mean two movies making six d million dollars in
Speaker 1: the States. I just want to make it clear to
Speaker 1: people that that is crazy first and foremost, but coming
Speaker 1: from one studio. And then, by the way, Disney overall
Speaker 1: has a third one with Incredibles too, So it's like,
Speaker 1: you guys are doing something right over here. Let's talk
Speaker 1: briefly at the very end here, I wanted to touch
Speaker 1: on the Disney Fox thing, which is, you know, Disney's
Speaker 1: acquired Fox, so you've got this kind of sandbox of
Speaker 1: characters to play with potentially. Now. I talked to the
Speaker 1: Russo's about this in an earlier stage where in a
Speaker 1: later stage, now, have you been given the yes, go
Speaker 1: start thinking about these other characters yet No, not yet,
Speaker 1: but we've been told it's it is. It's looking very
Speaker 1: good and and and could happen in the in the
Speaker 1: first six months of next year. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously everyone's been thrilled to see these characters come together
Speaker 1: on the screen to had this whole new uh again
Speaker 1: toy box of X Men and Fantastic four and Silver Surfer.
Speaker 1: I mean, the mind boggles, it's and it and it
Speaker 1: comes at such an interesting time for the studio too,
Speaker 1: because you're ten years in, You've come to the end
Speaker 1: of this first era. It's almost like, could that be
Speaker 1: a skeleton key to unlocking an entire new direction for
Speaker 1: this kind of overarching cinematic universe that Marvel Comics provides
Speaker 1: a lot of skeleton keys, um, which is what's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: And twenty two films, twenty three counting Far from Home,
Speaker 1: twenty three films in, we still have truly only scratched
Speaker 1: the surface of what has been in publishing in the
Speaker 1: past eighty years. One of the things that is equally
Speaker 1: frustrating but also um, pretty amazing is whenever we announce
Speaker 1: a slate. We haven't done it now for four years
Speaker 1: or so, but we we did a big event at
Speaker 1: the El Capitan Theater. I think it was four years ago.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, where we announced I can't remember exactly, but
Speaker 1: ten movies maybe, And I did a little a little
Speaker 1: Q and A with with press afterwards. The very like
Speaker 1: the first five questions were what about this character, what
Speaker 1: abou this other character? What about this movie? Um? And
Speaker 1: I thought, well, well, wait a minute, we just announced
Speaker 1: ten or whatever it was new movies. Isn't that enough?
Speaker 1: And what's amazing is no, it's not enough about which
Speaker 1: goes to which goes to how many great characters there
Speaker 1: are in these comics. So so I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot of them. UM. I can't remember what the
Speaker 1: official word is of eight thousand characters or ten thousand?
Speaker 1: Could they all be movies? No, of course not, but
Speaker 1: could a hundred, um, you know maybe um, and so
Speaker 1: many different types. That's why you know, the the earthbound
Speaker 1: UH stories that we've done. Getting UH to a cosmic
Speaker 1: space was always very important to me. I'm a big
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of of of science fiction and
Speaker 1: outer space movies, which now which now we've done the
Speaker 1: supernatural side metaphysical side of things with the Dutch Strange Universe, UM,
Speaker 1: and there's still others that we haven't tapped into yet
Speaker 1: in terms of in terms of genre plays, which is
Speaker 1: what we always like to do. UM. So there's lots there.
Speaker 1: The notion of the characters that had previously been under
Speaker 1: a Fox agreement coming back, um, is great. Number one,
Speaker 1: it's nice when a company that that that created all
Speaker 1: these characters can have access to all those characters. Um,
Speaker 1: it's unusual not to Marvel has been in a unique
Speaker 1: position to not have access to the characters a long time.
Speaker 1: And for me, going full circle to our conversation, that's
Speaker 1: where I started. That's where I started, you know, almost
Speaker 1: twenty years ago now, So that's so it's exciting. But
Speaker 1: in terms of actually thinking about it and actually planning things,
Speaker 1: we haven't started that yet. With this twenty two film
Speaker 1: arc of films coming to a close. Uh, I'm curious
Speaker 1: about you, Like, are you ready to go another ten
Speaker 1: years here at this company? Do you have designs on
Speaker 1: anything else? Do you want to? I mean, what you've
Speaker 1: built here is significant? Uh? Would you want to build
Speaker 1: it somewhere else? You know? Or are you happy staying
Speaker 1: here even longer? Because it's it's actually an unusual here.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been with Marvel for twenty years, like
Speaker 1: right out of the game, so uh and here you
Speaker 1: are still so just curious you know where you're at.
Speaker 1: I'm i am a uh anti person I said before,
Speaker 1: I don't like to sit at a desk. I'm we're
Speaker 1: in our my office right now. I almost never said
Speaker 1: at that desk I'd like to jump around and I'd
Speaker 1: like to move around. Um. So, even thinking, all right,
Speaker 1: if I've been in the same place for eighteen years, well,
Speaker 1: I guess theoretically yes, but in actuality, no, it's been
Speaker 1: it's been very different companies at least three three or
Speaker 1: four incarnations of this company since I've been here. This
Speaker 1: current incarnation is pretty great. Um. The people I work
Speaker 1: with at Marvel Studios are great. The people I work
Speaker 1: for at the Walt Disney Studios are incredible and of
Speaker 1: the best mentors I've I've ever had in this in
Speaker 1: this business. Um, working at this studio at this time
Speaker 1: is uh is pretty is is pretty um satisfying. And
Speaker 1: I like to make lots of different types of movies.
Speaker 1: And these characters, as you've seen in twenty two movies,
Speaker 1: or you've seen in twenty and we'll see in the
Speaker 1: next in the next three UM, provide a way to
Speaker 1: do lots of different films. People can lump them together
Speaker 1: as quote unquote superhero movie or complex movie, but to
Speaker 1: us their movies and to us we think about what
Speaker 1: kind of stories do we want to do. What kind
Speaker 1: of stories haven't we done? What kind of movies do
Speaker 1: we like that we haven't gotten to do yet, and
Speaker 1: then we decide what to make? Um and that's a
Speaker 1: and that is a We're very uh lucky to be
Speaker 1: in that position. Tell me, just abstractly, what's number one
Speaker 1: on that list? What kind of movie have you not
Speaker 1: made yet that you really want to make? Any answer
Speaker 1: would be a spoiler because I guess because they haven't
Speaker 1: come out yet and we're doing them. But um, but
Speaker 1: there are even well this is anything I say, we'll
Speaker 1: get but I'm just curious, like you know, just again
Speaker 1: just broadly speaking, because you know, cosmic for instances is
Speaker 1: a broadway to put that aspect of it. So, you know,
Speaker 1: even as Ryan Coogler has talked about, you know, the
Speaker 1: notion of of a James Bond type film with a
Speaker 1: swap here that that was one of the early UM
Speaker 1: inspirations that that the Nate More discussed with Ryan Coogler
Speaker 1: for for Panther um and uh and I don't think
Speaker 1: most people watched that film and think James Bond, but
Speaker 1: you can see where part of the part of that
Speaker 1: inspiration came from doing it with an African hero in
Speaker 1: a in a in a in a country that had
Speaker 1: never been colonized, is only even more exciting, makes it
Speaker 1: more more unique and special. Yeah, such a great movie. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you haven't seen Black Panther like yet, you should
Speaker 1: see it. I don't know how you would have missed
Speaker 1: this one, but it's on Blu ray, DVD, four K,
Speaker 1: all of those things, you should check it out. And
Speaker 1: beyond the streaming service before long, we didn't talk about that,
Speaker 1: but the streaming service. Is that going to be a
Speaker 1: big part of your plans? Like as far as branching
Speaker 1: things off the big screen and into more plus is yes,
Speaker 1: which is another another exciting avenue and another exciting reason
Speaker 1: to uh, another exciting thing about being at this place
Speaker 1: at this time. Um. And it goes back to the
Speaker 1: amount of characters we have, in the amount of stories
Speaker 1: we could tell. When we announced ten movies and people go,
Speaker 1: what about all these other things? The previous answer would be, well,
Speaker 1: we only have a certain number of we only have
Speaker 1: a certain number of slots to make movies per per year. Um.
Speaker 1: That's still true, but now we have another outlet to
Speaker 1: do things. I think that will be very, very unique
Speaker 1: and very special and uh, coming up in March, we've
Speaker 1: got Captain Marvel and then Avengers end Game, at which point,
Speaker 1: uh hopefully all answers, all questions will be answered. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe not. But here's the ten more years. Man, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, damn good job of this. Again. At
Speaker 1: the top, I said you're a key important figure in
Speaker 1: the industry, and I mean it because it's exciting to
Speaker 1: see something so radical take shape. And I'm looking around
Speaker 1: the office, man, like you've created a world and you know,
Speaker 1: hats off to you. That's all. We brought a world
Speaker 1: to life. That that he brought world life, I should say,
Speaker 1: and and by the way, I don't want to leave
Speaker 1: this without talking about stand just a little bit. Like again,
Speaker 1: we lost Stanley earlier this year. It was so great
Speaker 1: that he was able to see all of this as well.
Speaker 1: That has to be like a big deal to you
Speaker 1: that he you know, it was And and I was
Speaker 1: there not for everyone, but for almost every single cameo
Speaker 1: he's ever shot, going back to X Men one, UM,
Speaker 1: he was very special and he was I've always said,
Speaker 1: you know, anybody who met stan I've never heard one
Speaker 1: story of somebody meeting stan and not being overwhelmed with excitement.
Speaker 1: He never disappointed. UM and I was lucky enough to
Speaker 1: see him about ten days before he passed away coincidanally
Speaker 1: went went to his house to see him. Um And,
Speaker 1: in some ways, I never thought this day would come.
Speaker 1: I thought he'd be going, you know, Kirk Douglas just
Speaker 1: turned a hundred and two. I thought Stan was going
Speaker 1: to be there and literally outlived all of us. Um
Speaker 1: And in the same ways, it doesn't seem like he's
Speaker 1: gone because, just like Walt Disney on this lot, his
Speaker 1: influence will will never, will never go on. He is
Speaker 1: immortal because his characters aren't going anywhere. Sure, so yeah, exactolutely. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you again, man, take thank you, Congrats on a
Speaker 1: hundred episode appreciated, Congrats on ten years. Thank you, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you'll come back on the show. I'd love to
Speaker 1: have you back. I have to after some things unfold.
Speaker 1: Thanks again man. Thanks