Kevin Feige on Spider-man, No Way Home, Daredevil and how Netflix Marvel shows are fair game
Yes, Matt Murdock aka Daredevil is in Spider-Man: No Way Home - and more Netflix characters could jump into the Marvel universe.
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe cone of silence is legendary in the movie business.
Ever since the hit comic-book-inspired superhero saga kicked off in 2008 with the first Iron Man movie and became the most successful film franchise of all time, fans and media have been insatiable for any skerrick of information about its future.
And the amazing roster of actors – from A-listers to Oscar winners to rising stars – have become increasingly paranoid about unwittingly letting secrets slip, clamming up in interviews and joking about being taken out by a Marvel sniper should they say the wrong thing.
The 27th and latest entry into the MCU, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is no exception.
The third film with Jon Watts directing Tom Holland as the beloved wall-crawling, web-slinging superhero has seen fan fervour rise to a fever pitch, as trailers dropped tantalising glimpses of villains from earlier iterations of the character (and possibly even the heroes themselves), with rumours of previously unconnected Marvel TV characters being brought into the fold.
President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, who has masterminded the ever-expanding MCU and worked on the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies, says the constant pressure is both blessing and curse, but he’s learned to make peace with it over the years.
“Whenever there is something that has this level of interest, there are two ways to look at it,” he says.
“One way is to be frustrated about everyone trying to steal every secret and leak every surprise and the other way is to think, ‘Well, at least that means they care about it and are interested’.
“And I have become much more zen about it over the years that you make a movie that holds up regardless of what they may or may not know and the people who are talking about it and leaking things are actually a minor part of the overall audience.”
In the past, it’s been Holland who has been a security risk, becoming the most spoiler-prone of all the Marvel actors but today it’s Feige himself who drops a couple of bombshells.
Not only does he finally confirm that Charlie Cox, who played Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Netflix series Daredevil, appears in No Way Home but all the other Marvel characters brought to life by the streaming giant in its TV shows (which included Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage) could now potentially appear in the MCU under the right conditions, as well as anyone from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy with Maguire and Mark Webb’s two with Garfield.
“They are all fair game now and, just like when we are able to pull from 60-plus years of comic history, we now have 20-plus years of television and movies to pull from,” he says. “And whenever a character comes back into the Marvel Studios sandbox, we just think when and how we can incorporate them in a way that serves the story, as Matt Murdock’s brief appearance does in this movie.”
Since Avengers: Endgame wrapped up the Infinity Saga in 2019 and became the highest grossing movie of all time (a title it has since surrendered to James Cameron’s Avatar), the MCU has been in something of a reset period.
The second Spider-Man film, Far From Home, was the final film in Phase Three of the franchise and served as coda to the momentous events of Endgame, and the three Phase Four films released so far this year – Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals – have either farewelled established characters or introduced new ones.
But with No Way Home, which follows directly on from Far From Home, teasing the concept of a “multiverse” after Peter Parker enlists the help of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange to make the world forget he’s Spider-Man, there’s a sense that the next big crossover story starts in earnest here.
“That’s one way to look at it,” agrees Feige. “Certainly, it’s our first true sequel out this year with Black Widow and Eternals and Shang-Chi essentially telling introductory stories in many ways. So, I guess to that end it definitely connects. And whenever Doctor Strange is involved, that’s going to have repercussions and connections across other films.”
In No Way Home, Spidey’s enemies from other universes – including Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Willem Defoe’s Green Goblin (both from the Maguire movies) plus Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Rhys Ifans’ Lizard (from the Garfield films) – cross over into the MCU after Strange’s spell goes wrong.
Feige says a return to the characters that the respected actors farewelled years ago was the last thing any of them expected.
“It’s always fun. One of the great privileges in this job is you get to make phone calls to people that aren’t expecting them,” he says.
For all of its fantastical elements and spectacular action sequences, however, co-producer Amy Pascal says that No Way Home is at its heart a “rites of passage movie”.
While it’s likely that Holland will be an important part of the MCU and the Avengers for years to come, the third film will wrap up the story that began with a conversation Pascal and Feige had about casting a younger Peter Parker and following him through the traumatic years of high school.
“It’s about those moments in your life where things could go one way or another way,” Pascal says. “That’s what graduating from high school is and that’s what growing up is. And we’re calling the movie a culmination of the three Homecoming movies that we have done because it’s about that milestone.”
Former child star Holland has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s brightest stars – his adaptation of video game Uncharted will be released in February and he’s just signed on to make a biopic of dance great Fred Astaire – but Feige says the actor (who is now dating his Spider-Man co-star Zendaya) hasn’t let success go to his head.
“He remains one of the nicest, most grounded, down-to-earth people even though he has become one of the biggest movie stars in the world,” he says.
“It felt like when we first met him and started working with him that it would be the case were he to hit it big with this character. He has, thankfully, and he has remained grounded and very cool.”
Feige laughs at a shamelessly parochial suggestion that a good place for Spidey to spin his next web could be the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“It’s a good image,” he says.
“We always have to find new places for Spider to swing that’s for sure.”
But he does concede that Australia has been punching above its weight for MCU, which officially came into being when Iron Man had its world premiere in Sydney in 2008, weeks ahead of the rest of the world.
There’s also an Aussie Avenger in Chris “Thor” Hemsworth, director in Black Widow’s Cate Shortland, as well as three films shot on these shores – Thor: Ragnarok, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the coming Thor: Love and Thunder.
“I think that’s true,” he says. “Whatever is in the water that you have there in Australia makes great filmmakers and great actors and a great place to make great moves like Ragnarok and Shang-Chi, and Love and Thunder coming up.
“(Love and Thunder) is coming together very well. It’s obviously Taika Waititi bringing his unbelievably unique vision to it, and Hemsworth – who has become such an icon himself as this character. There’s the return of Natalie Portman and also Christian Bale as our villain. I sort of have to pinch myself as we see what Taika is putting together.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in cinemas on December 16
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Originally published as Kevin Feige on Spider-man, No Way Home, Daredevil and how Netflix Marvel shows are fair game
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