The year was 2008, the film was Iron Man. The world had seen a reemergence of comic book films thanks to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight franchise showing that you could take these characters seriously and people would show up. Yet questions remained: sure people would show up for a character as iconic as Batman, but would they also take the time to get to know the more obscure characters without mainstream recognition?
That was the gamble Marvel Studios Second in Command Kevin Feige presented then President Avi Arad after Arad formed Marvel Studios in response to Marvel making very little profit from licensing their big characters to other studios and seeing those films become massive hits.
Feige, a self proclaimed “fanboy” envisioned a cinematic shared universe that would echo what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had created with their comic books in the 60’s.
Avi Arad had his doubts about this approach to the newly formed company which led to him resigning his position as President of Marvel Studios, which, to his credit, could never have been formed if he hadn’t built a reputation in Hollywood that allowed the company to secure its initial $525 Million dollar funding from Merrill Lynch.
With Arad out, Feige was promoted and promptly set up a creative committee of six people who were experts in all things Marvel to hash out his plans for what he called at the time the “Marvel Cinema Universe.”
In today’s world, some 13 years later, we think about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as one of the greatest and most enduring cinematic endeavors ever attempted, but at the time, it was an unprecedented move. Sure, cinematic universes had been established before, just look at comic book aficionado Kevin Smith’s own View Askewniverse which began with his classic 1994 film Clerks and has continued as recently as 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. But what Feige envisioned was something far grander, for more bold and far more risky.
So as the world prepares to find out what a “Multiverse” is, we here at Joblo Videos have selected our picks for the Best Marvel Cinematic Universe Films! This video was written and narrated by Brad Hamerly and edited by William Hume.