While Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige usually prefers to stay schtum about future developments for the MCU, the release of a new movie often finds him opening up a little to drop teasing hints about projects in the works. The impending arrival of Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is just such an occasion, and Feige talked to Entertainment Weekly about a variety of subjects, including future plans for Spider-Man, The Marvels and more…
On the subject of Spider-Man, he was relatively cautious, since the company has yet to reveal any plans for more movies. But at least one is in the works, according to Feige. "All I will say is that we have the story. We have big ideas for that, and our writers are just putting pen to paper now."
Also arriving this year is The Marvels, the Nia DaCosta-directed sequel to Captain Marvel, which will see Brie Larson's hero sharing the screen with Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris' grown Monica Rambeau (as seen in WandaVision). We're promised a big-scale space adventure with some fun comic chemistry.
"That's what the entire movie is about. There are fun cosmic elements to it," Feige explains. "Marvel comic fans will recognize elements of the Kree-Skrull war. And it's picking up directly after the end of Captain Marvel, not in timeline but in story. We also do that in our upcoming Disney+ series Secret Invasion, and those are two very different follow-ups to that movie. Tonally, they couldn't be more different. But there's something immensely powerful about seeing Monica and Kamala and Carol together in a frame. To me, it's only akin to the first Avengers movie and seeing the six of them together in a frame. It's chill-inducing. They're so great together, and they all have different histories with one another."
"The great thing about Kamala in her show, and now in this movie, is that she's not unlike Tom Holland's Peter Parker in Civil War", continues Feige. She can't believe she's with these other heroes, and can't believe that she finds herself in these places. And that's fun because we want to be that. I want to be that."
A little further in the future is next year's Captain America: New World Order, which will see Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson as Cap on the big screen for the first time following his debut in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier but it's also big because it'll introduce Harrison Ford to the MCU, following the announcement that he'll take over as Thaddeus Ross from the late William Hurt.
"We start filming relatively soon," Feige says. "I'm sure anyone you've ever talked with about Harrison Ford says this, but it's unbelievable that we get to meet and talk with him and that he's embracing this role. He's tireless with the amount of work that he does. This is certainly a big part for Thaddeus Ross. He's the president of the United States in the film. And with Harrison, you think about Air Force One, and you think about some of his confrontations with the president in Clear And Present Danger. There's a dynamic between President Ross and Sam Wilson. They have a history together, but in this film, we'll be seeing the dynamic between Captain America and the president of the United States in a way that is just incredible."
For details on other movies and shows, head to EW's site.
And for those after even more Feige goodness, see if you can track down a copy of our Quantumania feature, in the issue with the movie on the cover…