Marvel Studio Head Kevin Feige has wanted to make a The Avengers movie for what seems like years now. His dream is now a reality as the film is out in theaters worldwide.
“This has been my whole life,” Feige told Movie Fanatic. “I’ve been a nerd my whole life and wanted to see this movie made for my whole life. The real answer, though, is towards the end of production of Iron Man, when Sam [Jackson] was gracious enough to spend three hours on a Saturday to break into Tony Stark’s house, wearing an eye patch, and tells him and the world, 'You’re part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.' When that movie succeeded, we realized that we actually had the opportunity to do it.”
The process began with meticulous patience as he laid out the characters he wanted in the superhero conglomerate film and introduced them to audiences, one at a time. First there was Iron Man (and Iron Man 2), a few Hulk movies, Captain America and Thor. “The only challenge was to try to make all the movies live on their own, even if we weren’t leading towards an Avengers movie,” he admitted. “If they’re all just interconnected puzzle pieces, that’s not as fun. They need to be movies, beginning to end. That was the biggest challenge.”
Then, he had to find the perfect visionary to bring them all into the same movie. Feige found it in Joss Whedon. “Looking at Joss’ body of work and the scripts that he’s written and his TV shows, the characters never, ever get lost. In fact, those are the moments that shine. That was, to me, why he was, by far, the best choice to mount this,” Feige said. “We’re confident in our ability to handle a production of this size. We want a helmsman to come in and steer it in unexpected ways, and to guide that tone, which is what Joss has done so well.”
His largest concern arose from the fact that he wondered whether the entire thing was simply too big to ever get right. “One of the only big fears I had with this was that the whole thing would collapse under its own weight. We’d spend so much time with costumes and superpowers and special effects that these characters and these actors wouldn’t get the chance to shine,” he said. The studio head, who is also the executive producer on The Avengers, insisted that the magic from this latest movie come from the collection of characters and the potential they had for ensemble magic. “My biggest interest in The Avengers is the interaction between these people.”