A major structural shift is taking place at Marvel. As the brand looks to put even more of its stamp on The Walt Disney Company with the upcoming launch of Disney +, all of Marvel’s creative personnel is moving under Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. Deadline hears that Feige is adding the title of Chief Creative Officer, Marvel, to his title. What that means for the brand is that all the company’s key creative executives across film and TV will now report to him, sources said. Already master of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Feige’s oversight will extend to the overall creative direction of Marvel’s storytelling and content creation platforms. As part of this, Marvel TV and animation generator Marvel Family Entertainment will move under Feige’s Marvel Studios banner.
Feige continues to report to Walt Disney Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Alan Hornand Co-Chairman Alan Bergman. The decision to place all film and television production and publishing under Marvel Studios comes at an important inflection point for the company: Marvel is moving into a second phase of its superhero film franchise launches, after an unprecedented record of success in its first decade. And the move comes as efforts to generate Marvel TV series for other platforms has wound down but will soon begin a new phase as Marvel creates premium content for Disney +.
Here is how the reporting structure will line up right under Feige: Dan Buckley will continue as President of Marvel Entertainment, where Ike Perlmutter remains Chairman. Long a creative collaborator for Feige in publishing and television, Buckley will have a dual reporting structure going forward, Deadline hears. He will continue to oversee publishing creative/editorial and in that capacity he will now report to Feige. Buckley is also responsible for publishing operations, sales, creative services, games, licensing and events. There, he will report to Perlmutter. It is expected that Joe Quesada will remain a creative lead for of Marvel Entertainment, reporting to Buckley. It is expected that all the creative execs in publishing will report to Buckley.
It’s been said this move is being finalized this week, so what do you all think? Will all stories, TV and film FINALLY all be connected? What are your thoughts CritiX?