This week brought the much-publicized news from The Walt Disney Company that they’ve officially selected their new CEO, confirming that Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro will succeed Bob Iger in the role of leading the company. It’s a move that many expected, and which will become official in March, but it brings with it some larger uncertainty about how D’Amaro’s leadership will position Disney in the long run and how his decision-making will affect the creative side of the company (like when Bob Chapek took the role back in 2020). The answer to this will only be revealed over time, but it seems like a good fit.
Confirmation from Disney that D’Amaro is taking over as CEO arrives not long after it was confirmed that their subsidiary Lucasfilm is also undergoing a leadership change, with Kathleen Kennedy stepping down from her post. This naturally has fans of Marvel wondering if something similar is going to take place at the House of Ideas, and if Kevin Feige may be considering a departure from Marvel in the near future. According to a new report from Deadline, that’s not happening, but the trade does offer an indicator of how much longer he could be around.
Kevin Feige Will Continue to Lead Marvel Into Its Next Era
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Rumors have long been pinned on Kevin Feige’s future at Marvel, with scuttlebutt and hearsay wondering if he might take over Lucasfilm at some point (all rooted in his vocal affinity for Star Wars). A report from last summer even revealed that Warner Bros. attempted to “steal” Feige from Marvel to try and get him to run DC and revitalize their superheroes for the big screen. Now though, it’s clear that Kevin Feige is a company man who remains committed to Marvel and Earth’s mightiest heroes.
According to the report from Deadline, there is no expectation of a leadership change at Marvel with Feige continuing his position as President of Marvel Studios and CCO of Marvel itself. The trade goes on to note two key priorities for Feige, which include not only Avengers: Doomsday this December, but “relaunching the X-Men franchise.” As Marvel fans know, Marvel Studios now fully owning the X-Men film rights has become a key focal point for the MCU moving forward. Not only have the characters already appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine, with many set to return in Doomsday, but an all-new X-Men movie for the MCU is in the works, with Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier set to direct the film.
Though far from confirmed, it seems like Kevin Feige will be sticking with Marvel through at least Avengers: Secret Wars and the time that will come after that, a period already referred to as a “soft reset” for the MCU by the producer and Oscar-nominee. Marvel has not officially revealed what will happen in the MCU after the release of Secret Wars in December 2027, but Feige has already teased that they’ll be streamlining things and making sure that all of their heroes can finally occupy one singular universe.
“Reboot is a scary word,” Feige told Variety last summer. “Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we’re thinking along those lines….X-Men is where that will happen next.”
It’s worth noting that it makes a lot of sense why Feige would want to be the primary creative hand guiding the new iteration of the X-Men on screen. Feige’s first credits in Hollywood came from working on the set of the original X-Men movies produced at Fox, where he worked as an associate producer under series executive producer Lauren Shuler Donner. That in mind, the X-Men are special to Feige, meaning he not only wants to take care of them but make sure that they continue to succeed, especially know that he can have a greater creative control over them AND make sure they can appear on the big screen with other major Marvel heroes for a change.
All of that is to say, though no official release date has been pinned down for the X-Men in the MCU, it seems like 2028 is the earliest that it could premiere. Knowing that, Kevin Feige will seemingly remain the big cheese at Marvel for at least two more years, but Marvel fans would almost certainly be happy to see him stay there for longer.