Thank you, Disney, for hosting me during the Thor: Ragnarok press event. Some interview questions and responses have been edited to improve readability.
Originally Kevin Feige wasn’t on our interview schedule for the Thor Ragnarok press event. He was a happy addition because as the President of Marvel Studios, we could ask him some Marvel universe questions! Check out what we learned from Kevin Feige about Thor: Ragnarok and other Marvel films below!
How are you feeling having Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor coming out in the same year?
It’s pretty awesome and I love that little Peter Parker in high school is in the middle of all that. It’s pretty cool and it indicates what I’ve always wanted people to understand that just because something’s based on a comic doesn’t mean they’re all the same. It doesn’t mean they all inhabit the same exact tone, tonal world.
On the Guardians of the Galaxy meeting Thor
Yes, and it comes out in May of next year. Infinity War is a pretty major meeting of those minds. Thor, in particular, with the Guardians, we’ve already shot some very fun scenes between them. The cosmic adventurers spend a lot of time together in that movie.
On the filming progress of upcoming Marvel movies
We have finished Avengers: Infinity War. They are currently filming Untitled Avengers. We started in January of this year and we go through January of next year, filming nonstop. Black Panther has started and finished. Ant-Man and The Wasp has started and almost finished while that’s all going on. It’s got about another four weeks.
When is Infinity Wars trailer dropping?
Someday. Someday. Yeah.
Why does this Thor has such a different look and feel?
That was our (Marvel’s) idea perfected and improved by Taika. We wanted to, as we always do in our movies, go to a new place. Go to an unexpected place. Look at what we did with Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, the third Captain American film, with Civil War and we always look at a third film, Infinity War in the case of Avengers coming up, as an opportunity to take what the fans like, that are willing to go with us and take them to a totally unexpected fun place.
Also, Mr. Hemsworth and if you talk to him, he’ll mention this probably, used to say, hey, mate, Captain America has got Iron Man in his movie, has got Black Widow in his movie, who am I getting? I’d go, ha, I know, I think he’s right. I think he’s right. And the fun thing about Thor is he’s got amazing characters in his own comics, so Hela and Valkyrie from his books, from the mythology. We knew we wanted to bring in there, but thinking about who else we could bring in from the (Marvel) universe and very quickly we realized Hulk would be that guy, that seeing Thor and Hulk battle it out together is great. Seeing Banner and Thor being fish out of water is even better. So, suddenly, you have this great dynamic between them, so we decided well, I guess Hulk when we last saw him on a Quinjet heading up into the atmosphere, he kept going and he got caught in a worm hole and he ended up on Sakaar.
What was behind pulling the Planet Hulk storyline into this movie?
Well, it was always something, Planet Hulk, in which Hulk finds himself forced into these gladiatorial games was always a great comic. That image of Hulk with these big battle weapons and that big helmet, we loved. We never really thought we would be able to do it, in large part because Banner is not a part of those comics. He’s Hulk the whole time and we love Mark Ruffalo. And wouldn’t want to do a movie without Mark Ruffalo in it. So I always sort of thought there wouldn’t really be that opportunity. As we were putting Thor: Ragnarok together, we realized, this is where we could do it. This is how we could do a taste of it. This is not the Planet Hulk story, but it’s certainly the inspiration of getting to see that and even characters like Korg and Miek who, as performed by Taika steal the whole movie, who are from that story as well.
Are there plans for any other stand-alone Hulk movies?
We love them all. We think it would be fun to bring them to the screen and how we do that, I’m not sure. In terms of stand-alone Hulk movies, there are various contracts with studios that have to be worked out. I’m just so happy that we have the ability to include Hulk in these ensembles and what we already have planned. The arc that we started with Raganrak, that you saw, and enhanced the push and pull between Hulk and Bruce Banner sort off for their body continues in the next Avengers film. In I think, unexpected fun ways.
Will there be a film showing what happened to the Hulk on Sakaar (between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok)
That would be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. I don’t know. I think that would probably fall under the solo Hulk area and stuff we’d have to figure out before we’d be able to do that, but you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to see more of that or more of Jeff Goldblum as the Grand Master.
The possibility of an all-female Marvel Movie
I think we certainly have enough powerful characters to do that. When and how, I don’t know, but I recently found myself in an undisclosed location. Somebody tapped on my shoulder and I turned around and there was Scarlett Johansson, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Tessa Thompson, Pom Klementieff, all saying, hey, when are we going to do a movie. So that was pretty overwhelming. Zoe Saldana was also standing there.
How to keep the balance with so many awesome Marvel films coming out.
You hire Taika Waititi, you hire you hire James Gunn, you hire John Anthony Russo and I’ve got an incredible team at Marvel Studios. Each film has a single embedded Executive Producer on it who sees it through, Brad Winterbaum on this movie, Executive Producer on that poster over there has lived with Taika for the past two and a half years. He moved his family to Australia for months and months. They’re on it the whole time, so I’m always a text or a phone call away of knowing exactly what’s happening anywhere at any given time. So it’s a great privilege to have this team in place. Most of, most of us have been together for almost the entire ten years at the studio which is very unusual in Hollywood.
I can’t wait to see Thor: Ragnarok again when it drops in theaters on 11/3!! I’ve been catching this fun TV spot for it lately and really love it. It’s a great example of the humor you will find throughout this film.
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