The poster for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduces a new film credit for Marvel Studios President and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige.
The latest piece of promotional artwork for the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel, which was recently confirmed to introduce the Illuminati to the MCU, lists it as "A Kevin Feige Production." This makes it the first MCU movie to carry this credit, although the attribution has already cropped up in two of Marvel Studios' small screen efforts on Disney+. Both Hawkeye and Moon Knight display the "A Kevin Feige Production" acknowledgment.
Feige has a long history of adapting Marvel superheroes for the big screen which predates the creation of the MCU. He started out as an associate producer on 2000's X-Men and held the same position on 2002's Spider-Man, before going on to co-produce or executive produce other Marvel movies throughout the mid-2000s, including Daredevil, Hulk, X2 and Spider-Man 2. Feige was named Marvel Studios President in 2007 and played a key role in establishing the MCU, starting with 2008's Iron Man. The cinematic universe is now one of the most profitable franchises ever, with recent installment Spider-Man: No Way Home overtaking Avatar as the third-highest-grossing movie in the United States.
The Hollywood heavyweight has previously spoken about how lessons he learned while making X-Men continue to inform his approach to the MCU, including casting Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. "[Hugh Jackman] embodies the spirit of Wolverine, and that was a big lesson that I always took from that," Feige said in an interview. "It doesn't have to match the comic frame exactly. It has to match the spirit of it."
Feige's new film credit comes after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Sebastian Stan complained that the Marvel Studios President doesn't get enough kudos for shepherding the MCU. "I just think Kevin Feige doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves for being the genius mastermind for putting this entire thing together," Stan said. "And every single [Marvel Studios] movie to me feels intricately kind of tied to something else and to another storyline and it just, there’s a lot to those movies I think that sometimes they don’t get the credit that they deserve."
Feige himself has called attention to the film industry's refusal to recognize the MCU specifically and superhero movies more broadly. "I think we are always at a deficit because of the Marvel logo and because of a genre bias that certainly exists," he said. "I just loved that for a shining moment there with Black Panther that was put aside and the work was recognized for the achievement that it was."
Source: The Direct