Kevin Feige responds to Spielberg’s and Snyder’s superhero comments

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Exactly one month ago, we reported that Steven Spielberg felt that superhero films would go the way of the Western, suggesting that they were just a passing genre. Fair enough, if only because superhero flicks are no more prevalent than they are today. Zack Snyder responded in kind by saying that Spielberg might not be wrong, but that Batman and Superman are transcendent of superhero movies and that ANT-MAN is just the "flavor of the week." Not the most diplomatic of answers, but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige did have some words of his own to share.

Kevin Feige on the future of Marvel movies:

In 2001, 2002, 2003 there were two Marvel movies, three Marvel movies, and I still believe the same thing, which is as long as the ones that we can control are as good as they can be, that's all that I care about. I think we've been doing pretty well. I'm very confident in the films we've announced that we have coming forward that they're going to be surprising and different and unique. I've said a lot: I don't believe in the comic book genre. I don't believe in the superhero genre. I believe that each of our films can be very different.

If he thinks the superhero genre will go the way of the Western:

It could, but the Western lasted 40-50 years, and they still pop up occasionally. It's been, what, eight years since Iron Man 1 if we count that, which I do, as the beginning of our MCU? Maybe [the superhero genre] will only last another 42 years.

Regarding Zack Snyder's comments on ANT-MAN and the other Marvel movies:

Those are all very different movies. They all happen to be based on Marvel characters and Marvel comics, but from a genre and a cinematic perspective, they're all very unique. Civil War may as well be a different genre from Age of Ultron.

The way Winter Soldier was a political thriller, I think there is a more emotional and more geopolitical and real world through line through Civil War than there was in the broader Age of Ultron with the killer AI Tony Stark invention. I think it's the same thing as saying, 'I don't know how many more movies can be made from novels. I think people are going to bored with novels being turned into movies. I don't know how long it's going to last.'

Kevin Feige makes a good point, but it's really all dependent on how unique and substantial the comic book film is. In regards to ANT-MAN, I don't think anyone's going to be talking about it a year from now (is anyone talking about it now?) but WINTER SOLDIER earns its political thriller status while also providing the action superhero films are known to deliver. This genre may go the way of the Western, but we still have a hell of a lot left to see before the sun sets.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR opens in theaters on May 6, 2016.

Now this represents the AGE OF ULTRON we should've seen!