Tucked about a third of the way into Bloomberg Businessweek’s lengthy profile of Marvel studio president Kevin Feige is note about a “map of films reaching far into the next decade” hanging on the wall of Feige’s office. Considering the comic-book studio estimates it has more than 8,000 characters to its name, how far that timeline goes shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise, but damn:
“It’s like looking through the Hubble telescope. You go, ‘What’s happening back there? I can sort of see it,’ ” he laughs. “They printed out a new one recently that went to 2028.”
So, if Marvel makes as many as five superhero movies a year, as the story suggests, for 14 years, that’s 70 movies in the pipeline. That’s a pretty bold plan for a studio that didn’t exist a decade ago. Bloomberg writer Devin Leonard goes into the particulars of how Marvel has gotten into that position, and it’s worth a read for people who are interested in the business culture of Disney and Hollywood/want to wring their hands over the current sequel-obsessed, property-leveraged climate of making movies.
As recently as last August, Feige said the studio had films planned through 2021, which means at this rate, Marvel’s release slate through 2100 should be in place by this time next year.