Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ President and Chief Creative Officer, is said to be more concerned with the long-term vision of the Marvel Cinematic Universe than with day-to-day operations.
Eternals VFX Production Supervisor Stephane Ceretti noted on the VFX Notes podcast that, as the MCU develops, Feige can no longer be as active with each individual film as he previously was, especially with visual effects. Victoria Alonso, President of Physical, Post Production, VFX, and Animation at Marvel Studios, now oversees most of the hands-on work for visual effects, while Kevin Feige concentrates on the MCU’s wider plot.
“It’s a lot more people now,” Ceretti said, “but the way it is, it’s fun and wild at the same time, it’s extremely exciting because we are really, truly part of the process.” “It’s a little different now that the studio is larger, and we may have a little less access to the folks we used to have all the time. [Alonso] is always there, so she attends all of our meetings and readings. [Feige] used to come to every VFX reading with us, which was fantastic, like really wonderful, because he’s so busy with narrative and everything, but he used to come to every VFX reading with us, which was great, like really great.”
Since the MCU’s inception with Iron Man in 2008, Feige has produced every Marvel Studios picture, as well as eight short films and five streaming series, with more to come as the cinematic world expands into Phase 4. Sebastian Stan, who has played Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in five films and a Disney+ series, referred to Kevin Feige as the “mastermind” behind the creation of the MCU in a recent interview.
“I simply believe Kevin Feige doesn’t receive nearly as much credit as he deserves for being the architect behind this whole thing,” Stan added. “And every single [Marvel Studios] movie to me seems intimately sort of related to something else and to another plot, and there’s just a lot to those movies, and I think they don’t always get the recognition that they deserve.”
The MCU’s most recent film was the box office hit Spider-Man: No Way Home, which basically ripped the universe open, opening the way for the impending sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hits cinemas on May 6. At the moment, Marvel Studios is working on roughly 30 projects, with the Disney+ series Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac, set to premiere on March 30.
