When given the opportunity to cover anything Marvel, it’s quite the treat. For this Marvel Studios Kevin Feige Thor: Ragnarok interview, he sits down to answer all our questions about the new film. Always candid and a pleasure to talk with, Kevin also shares what he can about all things Marvel. He even answers that question us bloggers have been waiting to ask. You know, about that Tony Stark’s line in the last Spider-Man movie implying bloggers aren’t real journalist? Yeah, we did.
Kevin Feige Thor: Ragnarok Interview
As Kevin walks into the room he smiles as if he has entered a room full of friends. He’s always so friendly with our group. He asks, “So did you like the movie?” Um, seriously, of course! It’s fantastic! https://youtu.be/ue80QwXMRHg
Did you like the movie?
Yes, I am very proud of this film.
How are you feeling having Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor coming out in the same year?
It’s pretty awesome and I love that little Peter Parker in high school is in the middle of all that. It’s cool and indicates what I’ve always wanted people to understand that just because something’s based on a comic doesn’t mean they all inhabit the same exact tone. These are our three movies this year (Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, Spiderman and now Thor: Ragnarok) I always knew and was hoping it would be pretty exciting.
Will Guardians of the Galaxy, meet Thor in the future?
Yes, and it comes out in May of next year. Infinity War is a pretty major meeting of those minds. Thor, in particular, with the Guardians. We’ve already shot some very fun scenes between them. The cosmic adventurers spend a lot of time together in that movie.
Is that filming in Atlanta?
We have finished, uh, Avengers: Infinity War. They are currently filming Untitled Avengers. We started in January of this year, and we go through January of next year filming. Nonstop. Black Panther has started and finished. Ant-Man and The Wasp has started and is almost finished while that’s all going on.
Why does this Thor has such a different look and feel? Who made that decision? Marvel or Taika?
That was our idea perfected and improved by Taika. We wanted to, as we always do in our movies, go to a new place. Go to an unexpected place. Look at what we did with Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, the third Captain American film, with Civil War. We always look at a third film, Infinity War in the case of Avengers coming up, as an opportunity to, to take what the fans like, that they’re willing to go with us and take them to a totally unexpected fun place. Also, Mr. Hemsworth and if you talk to him, he’ll probably mention used to say, “Hey, mate, Captain America has got Iron Man in his movie, has got Black Widow in his movie, who am I getting? I’d go, oh, I know, ha, and I’d go, I think he’s right. I think he’s right. The fun thing about Thor is he’s got amazing characters in his own comics. Hela and Valkyrie from the mythology. We knew we wanted to bring in there, but thinking about who else we could bring in from the universe. Very quickly we realized Hulk would be that guy. But seeing Thor and Hulk battle it out together is great. Seeing Banner and Thor being fish out of water is even better. So, suddenly, you have this great dynamic between them, so we decided well, I guess Hulk when we last saw him on a quinjet heading up into the atmosphere. He kept going, and he got caught in a wormhole, and he ended up on Sakaar.
What was behind pulling the Planet Hulk storyline into this movie?
Well, it was always something, Planet Hulk, in which Hulk finds himself forced into these gladiatorial games, was always a great comic. That image of Hulk with these big battle weapons and that big helmet, we loved. We never really thought we would be able to do it, in large part because Banner is not a part of those comics. He’s Hulk the whole time, and we love Mark Ruffalo. And wouldn’t want to do a movie without Mark Ruffalo in it. I always sort of thought there wouldn’t really be that opportunity.
As we were putting Thor: Ragnarok together, we realized we could; this is where we could do it. How we could do, you know, a taste of it. This is not the Planet Hulk story, but it’s certainly the inspiration of getting to see that and even characters like Korg and Meek who, as performed by Taika kinda steal the whole movie are from that story as well.
Are there plans for any other stand-alone Hulk movies?
We love them all. We think it would be fun to bring them to the screen and how we do that, I’m not sure. In terms of stand-alone Hulk movies, there are various contracts with studios that have to be worked out. I’m just so happy that we have the ability to include Hulk in these ensembles and what we already have planned, the arc that we’re started with Ragnarok, that you saw. An enhanced push and pull between Hulk and Bruce Banner sort of for their body continues in the next Avengers film.vIn I think, unexpected fun ways.
Is there going to be a film where we see more of what happened to Hulk on Sakaar between the time he left the Avengers and became a warrior?
That would be pretty cool. I don’t know. I think that would probably fall under the solo Hulk area. That’s stuff we’d have to figure out before we’d be able to do that. But you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to see more of that or more of Jeff Goldblum as the Grand Master.
Are you looking towards an all-female movie?
I think we certainly have enough powerful characters to do that. When and how, I don’t know, but I recently found myself in an undisclosed location. Somebody tapped on my shoulder, and I turned around, and there was Scarlet Johansson, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Tessa Thompson, Pom Klementieff, all saying, hey, when are we going to do a movie. So that was pretty overwhelming. Zoe Saldana was also standing there.
If you saw Spider-Man, you may remember the line Tony Stark says “Behind this door are a bunch of journalists. Real ones – not bloggers.“ As a blogger I can admit, it stung a little. However, it was Tony Stark and a line that makes sense coming out of his mouth. However, this caused a bit of attention in the blogging community since many of us we work hard to promote so many Marvel movies. So my friend and fellow blogger Tessa Smith of mamasgeeky.com asked Kevin about this, and his response made sense, hopefully putting the questions to rest.
That was a comedic ad lib from Mr. Downey. That’s just one of the many things he just says. Moments before that, he says something about a human-dog hybrid and puppies and who knows what he’s talking about? It’s just funny. When we shot it just sort of went past me, and we cut it together and only in sort of the early screenings I went, oh (laughing). I’m gonna hear about this. And it was just him being funny.
With every film, Marvel seems to outdo themselves. Looking back it there one that stands out more than the rest?
We’ve been so lucky that with each release, another one rises to the top and I read comments that now Thor is going to become people’s favorite Avenger after this movie. I love the I’m Mary Poppins shirt and what we and what James did for Yondu. Yondu on the arm over there. I love it. So the truth is, no, I don’t have a favorite. But I think looking as we approach our ten year anniversary, it’s impossible not to look back on Iron Man one and what Favreau did and what Downey did and continued to do that really is the foundation for everything we’ve done. So that, that experience of Iron Man one was our first, so, in many ways, is the one I look back at quite fondly, but I don’t have, I don’t have favorites.
How do you balance all the films you have coming out?
You hire Taika Waititi; you hire, you hire James Gunn, you hire Joe and Anthony Russo. I’ve got an incredible team at Marvel Studios who, who each film has a single embedded Executive Producer on it who sees it, Brad Winterbaum on this movie, Executive Producer on that poster over there has lived with Taika for the past two and a half years. He moved his family to Australia for months and months. They’re on it the whole time, so I’m always a text or a phone call away of knowing exactly what’s happening anywhere at any given time. 
So it’s a great privilege to have this team in place. Most of, most of us have been together for almost the entire ten years at the studio which is very unusual in Hollywood. It’s great. 
Come back for more Thor – I will be posting exclusive interviews and more in the upcoming weeks.
Get your tickets now!
THOR: RAGNAROK opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd!
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*I was invited by Disney to attend the Thor Ragnarok Event to share my experience with my readers. All opinions are my own.
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