What Kevin Feige Still Does On MCU Opening Nights (& The Time Ryan Coogler Caught Him)
Oftentimes Hollywood power producers — including Marvel President Kevin Feige — will introduce their films unannounced at theaters to get a read on how audiences are feeling about their work. One time, though, Feige said it was a then-regular audience member who got a read on him instead.
In a Marvel video conversation with "Iron Man" filmmaker Jon Favreau, Feige recalled how he, the director, and star Robert Downey Jr. did a surprise introduction of the film on opening night at the historic Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles in 2008. As it turns out, the regular audience member at the time was about 10 years away from making history himself as a writer-director at Marvel Studios.
"Many years, later, I learned that Ryan Coogler, who would go on to direct 'Black Panther,' was in the audience that night," Feige told Favreau during the conversation to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the release of "Iron Man." According to the producer, Coogler told Feige that he briefly ran across him, Favreau and Downey at the "Iron Man" opening. "He'd been getting popcorn and was running in late as we were going out and he said, 'You guys looked confident. I knew the movie was going to be good because you looked confident."
"I have no memory of feeling confident that night," Feige continued, while Favreau admitted, "I was in a blur. I think by the time we were announcing it, we were probably feeling good." Whether it was by mere happenstance or destiny that the filmmakers crossed paths with Coogler at the Cinerama Dome, Feige said the ritual of hitting theaters with regular audiences continues for almost all Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
Feige praises Favreau as a forward thinker
Released on May 2, 2008, "Iron Man" not only featured Jon Favreau's direction, but the beginning of his Marvel Cinematic Universe work in a key supporting role as Happy Hogan, the driver and right-hand man of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). In his conversation with Kevin Feige, Favreau said, "That's what's fun to be able to pop back in [the MCU] to be Happy Hogan, because, I get to, like, come in and be around it and it's like I never left."
Of course, the reason Favreau got to reprise Hogan so many times is because of the enduring success of the MCU. As such, Feige congratulated the actor-director on his forward thinking and recalled Favreau's determination in the early days of "Iron Man" at the Marvel production offices in Beverly Hills, California. "I remember saying to you, 'Jon, we're going to be together, you know, every day for the next two years,'" Feige recalled for Favreau. "You said, 'No, if this works, we're going to be together for the next 10 years' and, uh, you were wrong because it's now been 15 years."
And, there appears much more to come. Phase 5 of the MCU is underway, while Feige sees a future for the MCU with genre experimentation as Marvel Studios appears open to making different types of movies apart from superhero films.
Favreau, meanwhile, has been busy the last few years as the creator and head writer on the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian," and has been open about how Star Wars and the MCU inform each other.