Kevin Feige Dismisses Notion of Superhero Fatigue

The term “superhero fatigue” is thrown around quite a bit by those who think moviegoing audiences will eventually tire of the likes of Marvel and DC films. According to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, however, he doesn’t think that will ever happen.

Speaking during an appearance on The Movie Business Podcast (via Variety) hosted by author and professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts Jason E. Squire, Feige said that he believes that there are simply too many stories to tell and adapt in different ways for people to ever get tired of them.

“I’ve been at Marvel Studios for over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together, Feige said. “From probably my second year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?’ “I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after Gone With the Wind, ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?’ You would never ask that because there’s an inherent understanding among most people that a book can be anything. A novel can have any type of story whatsoever. So it all depends on what story you’re translating. Non-comic readers don’t understand that it’s the same thing in comics.”

Feige went on to reference the many genres in that superhero stories can be told.

“There’s 80 years of the most interesting, emotional, groundbreaking stories that have been told in the Marvel comics, and it is our great privilege to be able to take what we have and adapt them,” said Feige. “Another way to do that is adapting them into different genres, and what types of movies we want to make.

“I found that if we tell the story right, and we adapt them in a way that the audience still — knock on wood so far — is following us along 22-plus years later… we can [make] any types of movies that share two things: the Marvel Studios logo above the title and a seed of an idea from our publishing history.”