Interview: Kevin Feige on Deadpool & Wolverine, Blade, and the MCU

ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim recently interviewed Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Feige discussed the multiverse, the upcoming Blade movie, breaking the fourth wall, and the first movie he watched on Disney+.

He is also producing Deadpool & Wolverine, set to release July 26. “Wolverine is recovering from his injuries when he crosses paths with the loudmouth Deadpool,” reads the official synopsis. “They team up to defeat a common enemy.”

Jonathan Sim: Deadpool & Wolverine is set in the Multiverse Saga of the MCU. What is it about the multiverse as a storytelling tool that makes it so fun to tell stories with and create an experience that audiences will never forget?

Kevin Feige: Well, for us, it is the ability to bring characters together that you may never have thought you could ever see together. And, you know, great examples of that are Tobey [Maguire] and Andrew [Garfield] and Tom [Holland] in Spider-Man No Way Home and seeing those three versions of Spider-Man together. And in this one, it’s seeing Deadpool, who’s been at the top of his game, and Wolverine, who died a number of movies ago. And it’s only thanks to the amazing storytelling tool of parallel realities and timelines that we could do that. And I think when people see the movie, the storytellers, Ryan [Reynolds] and Shawn [Levy], have gotten to great lengths to be very respectful of how to do that and very humorous in how to bring that about.

Now, one of my favorite things about characters like Deadpool and She-Hulk is the fact that they get to break the fourth wall, and they get to poke fun at the MCU and they get to poke fun at you, Kevin Feige. So are you the one who’s signing off on all these jokes and is there a certain line that they can’t cross?

They make fun of me?

A little bit. In She-Hulk, right?

I haven’t seen it. [Laughs]

Yes. I think the Marvel Comics and our movies and just our own personalities, many of us in Marvel Studios, are very self-deprecating in our usual lives and demeanor. And Deadpool is all about that. Deadpool makes fun of Ryan Reynolds as much as he makes fun of anybody else. Yeah, so to be a part of that, I think, is fun and meaningful, and yes, we do it all in lockstep together.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the first MCU movie to be rated R, and I think that’s a perfect choice for this film. Looking forward into the future, do you think that there are any projects where you’re certain that you want to go down the rated R route for that as well?

You know, Deadpool is rated R because it has to be. Because the first two movies were rated R and because that is the tonality that Ryan has brought so amazingly to life, and to do anything but that would not have been to fulfill the promise of who that character is or what that story could be. I think there are no movies we’ve made up to this point where, like, if only, if only Avengers could have been R-rated, if only Iron Man could have been R-rated, if Doctor Strange — that never occurred to us, never thought about it. We’ve never been hamstrung by that.

I will say we’ve been working on a Blade movie for very long and aren’t going to start that movie until we’ve got it exactly right. But those movies were R-rated and it does seem like that is part of what is inherent about the Blade character. Yeah. So that’s an R-rated movie we’re developing as well. So, where appropriate, I think we’ll certainly we’ll certainly do that.

One of my next questions was gonna be about the Blade movie because It’s gone through a lot of writers and directors. Is there any current status update on that project? Because I’m really excited to see it, but I want it to take the amount of time that it needs. So what is the status?

That’s what we’re doing is taking the amount of time that it needs. And right now, I don’t think there’s a scoop. If there is, it’s all yours. But Eric Pearson, who’s a great, great writer, is working on a draft right now. That is very exciting. Yeah. so, but we won’t get too excited until it’s really all there because Blade’s a very, very important character. Mahershala [Ali] is an amazing actor who walked in one day and said, “I think I wanna be Blade.” And we wanna find the right way to do that.

He’s perfectly cast, so, you know, might as well. And looking forward at the slate of MCU projects, if I were to ask you which one that you’re the most excited for audiences all over the world to experience, what is the first one that pops into your head?

Can I say Deadpool & Wolverine?

You can. Absolutely.

Deadpool & Wolverine.

I honestly agree because this is one of those movies that is gonna bring together fans of the Avengers and X-Men, and I think everyone who has been watching the MCU for so long is so excited to see this upcoming film. I’m excited for it just as much as you. Marvel Studios has this reputation for being one of the most secretive studios ever, and I think a lot of that is a result of you. I don’t think anyone can keep a secret better than Kevin Feige. Looking back at all of it, what was the movie where it was the hardest to keep all of the secrets secret?

Well, every movie. That’s very hard and almost impossible nowadays. And I think I realized a long time ago that it’s great to keep secrets. And the only reason we want to keep secrets is to maintain surprises. So that an audience, that theater full of people, can discover things for the first time and have that adrenaline rush of a surprise for the first time. But what I have learned is if the moment works in the movie, and if you’ve earned it for the minute that once the lights go down in the theater, it’s a clean slate, and people have read things online or made predictions or read rumors, most of that goes away for most viewers when the lights go down, and they experience it fresh. And if the movie works, and if those moments work, they will. It’s probably always better if it’s a surprise, but they’ll work 99% as well if they’re well crafted into a cinematic moment. So that’s what makes me feel better when things are spoiled.

I’m excited to be surprised by Deadpool & Wolverine because I don’t know much about it, but I wanted to ask one last question, and I wanna paint a picture for you. Let’s say that you’re on Disney+ and you’re scrolling through…

I thought you were literally gonna paint a picture for me.

I could if you’d like me to. But you’re on Disney+, the Marvel catalog, and you’re looking for something to watch. What do you think is your go-to Marvel project that you think you’d be in the mood for on any given day?

Any given day? That’s a great question. I don’t know. You wanna know the very first thing I ever turned on when Disney+ launched? I know the first thing that I watched. There was no Marvel stuff on there. The Black Hole. Early ’80s sci-fi movie, right? With Old Bob, the droid. Anyway, that was the first thing I watched on Disney+.

Oh, that’s amazing.

I spend all day at work looking at Marvel projects. Right. So when I go home and turn on Disney+…

It’s the last thing you want to see.

I watch the new stuff that I haven’t worked on.

Jonathan Sim

Jonathan Sim is a film critic and filmmaker born and raised in New York City. He has met/interviewed some of the leading figures in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Liam Neeson, and Denis Villeneueve. He also works as a screenwriter, director, and producer on independent short films.