It was recently announced that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige would be producing a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm. God knows how he’ll find the time, what with producing every single entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all, but he’s prepared for that challenge.
Feige has created something truly special with the MCU, revolutionizing the modern film industry with a new type of franchise that has become the highest-grossing of all time, and now, he can bring that something special to the Star Wars saga. So, here are 10 Things Kevin Feige Brought To Marvel That He Could Bring To Star Wars.
Fan service
What the MCU has always done brilliantly is giving the fans what they want while also subverting their expectations. Avengers: Endgame was basically three hours of fan service – from Captain America wielding Mjolnir to the female Avengers fighting off the Outriders together to the “Hail Hydra” elevator scene – but it also featured plenty of surprises.
It stands on its own as an excellent movie with a well-told plot and strong themes, but it also has everything fans want from these movies. Disney-era Star Wars has done a terrible job of pleasing the diehard fans, so hopefully, Feige, as a diehard fan himself, will be able to change that.
Interconnected storylines
Kevin Feige has pioneered many techniques of interconnected storytelling during his time working on the MCU. These can be little Easter eggs that connect the movies together, like the “Who’s to blame for Sokovia?” headline briefly featured on a newspaper that Ant-Man ran across in his solo movie that bridged the gap between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
Or, they can be more profound than that, like showing Nick Fury paging Captain Marvel while half of all life turned to dust to introduce her as a powerful, long-awaited presence ahead of her solo movie. He can bring this form of interwoven plotting to Star Wars and make the universe feel a lot tighter.
Perfect casting
Every character in the MCU has been perfectly cast. It’s not just that the actors are well-suited to their roles; it feels like no one besides those actors could play those characters. Only Robert Downey, Jr. could play Tony Stark, only Chris Evans could play Steve Rogers, only Chris Pratt could play Peter Quill etc.
This is all thanks to Sarah Finn, the casting director behind every MCU movie since Iron Man. Kevin Feige has already said that he has a big-name actor in mind for his Star Wars movie; he will likely be working with Finn on the casting.
Satisfying payoffs
Recent Star Wars movies have done a good job of setting things up, but not so much paying them off. The Force Awakens set up Snoke as a mysterious figure with an unclear backstory, and in The Last Jedi, that mystery remained unsolved and that backstory remained unclear as he was lopped in half the second he showed up.
The MCU has always paid everything off, whether it’s a repeated line (“On your left!”) or an unresolved question (can Cap lift Mjolnir?), and remember, Thanos was first teased in Phase 1. He didn’t make his first appearance not sitting on a throne until six years after that initial post-credits tease, but even then, he didn’t disappoint.
Spectacular world-building
George Lucas’ main disappointment with the new Star Wars movies is that they haven’t explored new planets, or new types of planets. When he was in charge, he made sure to include never-before-seen worlds in every movie. The Disney movies have done no such thing. Jakku is technically an original creation, but it’s a desert planet full of scavengers where our unsuspecting hero grew up, which is kind of a lot like Tatooine.
Say what you will about the prequels, but at least Lucas introduced us to new worlds, like the rainy planet of Kamino and the Wookiees’ home planet, Kashyyyk. Kevin Feige has overseen some impeccable world-building in the MCU, from Asgard to Wakanda to Knowhere to Sakaar, so Star Wars’ world-building is back in safe hands.
Oscar-nominated social significance
There was an outrage last year when the Academy tried to introduce a new Oscar for Best Popular Film in response to the universal critical acclaim received by Black Panther. The Academy thought they could appease both industry snobs who look down their nose at superhero movies and fans who appreciated the genuine artistry that went into crafting Black Panther, as well as its social importance.
The movie ended up getting a nod for Best Picture when the Best Popular Film category was inevitably scrapped. As the film’s producer, this nomination went to Kevin Feige, who can now bring that Oscar-worthy social significance to the Star Wars universe.
Serialization
When George Lucas was first envisioning Star Wars, he was inspired by the sci-fi adventure serials that he grew up with, like Flash Gordon. With the MCU, Kevin Feige has brought the serial into the modern day.
The point of a serial was to keep audiences coming back to the theater to see each chapter of a multi-part story, influenced by the earliest publication methods of novels from Dickensian times. The MCU keeps audiences coming back again and again to get pieces of a puzzle; you have to watch all 23 movies to get the full experience. Feige could finally turn Star Wars into a real serial.
Having an “endgame” in sight
Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy has been something of a mess, because it wasn’t mapped out from the beginning. When George Lucas was making the original and prequel trilogies, everything wasn’t planned out to the last detail, but he did have vague outlines of where everything was going and he stuck to them. The result is a consistent saga.
But J.J. Abrams made The Force Awakens with no end in sight, Rian Johnson made The Last Jedi based on what Abrams did, and the result of that has been an aimless, meandering trilogy. However, Kevin Feige has been making the MCU with the “endgame” in sight, building towards an epic finale. That’s something he can fix about Star Wars.
Pure escapism
The appeal of the Star Wars saga has always been the pure escapism they provide. Those movies take us to a galaxy far, far away from the real world and all of our problems. For two hours, we get to disappear into a completely different world. Kevin Feige has managed to do this in the MCU, despite being set mostly on Earth.
The MCU has immersed us in a version of the world that has culminated in a near-future vision of Earth that’s full of superheroes and has suffered mass cosmic genocide that it was then saved from. Feige can bring the MCU’s escapism back to Star Wars.
Faithfulness to the spirit of the source material
Not every MCU movie has been 100% faithful to the comics, but they have been faithful to the spirit of the comics. The Tony Stark of the MCU has the same fears and flaws of the Tony Stark of the comics. The Steve Rogers of the MCU has the same goody-two-shoes nature and irrepressible urge to do the right thing of the Steve Rogers of the comics.
The problem with recent Star Wars movies is that they’ve ignored at best, and betrayed at worst, what makes Star Wars so great. As a self-confessed Star Wars fanboy, Kevin Feige should be able to set that straight.
