In order to stay fresh in the superhero genre, the studios need to keep evolving and delivering something different than anything the audience has seen before. Christopher Nolan took a more real-world approach to Batman. ‘Super’ and ‘Kick-Ass’ took real people with no powers or budget and put them in a superhero story. And Marvel is delivering fanboy-friendly films that are well made and diverse. In the case of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, they presented a full on World War II movie mixed with a superhero origin story. It wasn’t just set in the ’40s, but it was about the time period and a hero rising out of it. Now, with the sequel entering production in Cleveland, Ohio next month, what sort of genre-bending can we expect this time around from Marvel? Kevin Feige has the answer!
In an interview with Variety, the President of Marvel Studios talks about keeping his company’s superhero movies fresh and interesting. Along with declaring that the genre is not a fad, he also said that they look to “populate the films with rich, three-dimensional characters and [employ] a wealth of storylines that have been developed over the decades in print [making] it much easier to pull off”. He goes on to describe the “sub-genres” that Marvel is hoping to delve into with their Phase Two slate of films:
“If it is a fad, it’s one that lasts 30 to 40 years, as the Western did, because each one is so different. There’s an opportunity to graft almost sub-genres onto them. Our first Captain America film was a World War II picture, and the next is a political thriller. They all have their own textures and patinas, and that’s what is exciting about it.”
Based on the title of the movie, and now this description of the film, you can already tell that the Russo Brothers are heavily borrowing from Ed Brubaker’s phenomenal run on the Captain America comics that brought Bucky back to life after decades of being absent from the Marvel Universe. Now, I’m not usually a fan of political movie or shows, but somehow when Brubaker did it with my favorite superhero, I was into it, so hopefully ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ carries a lot of what made the source material great.
And to further Feige’s point, we’ve already seen Marvel pull of fantasy with ‘Thor’, sci-fi/action with ‘Iron Man’, and a monster movie with ‘The Incredible Hulk’. In Phase Two, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is supposed to be a straight up sci-fi movie, and who knows what’s going on in the mind of Edgar Wright when it comes to ‘Ant-Man’, so you can see that we’re no longer getting guys in tights only saving the day. Marvel is raising the bar when it comes to superhero movies.
What do you think of Kevin Feige’s description of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’? What are you most excited for in the upcoming film? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo, Toby Jones, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, and Emily VanCamp is scheduled to land in theaters on April 4, 2014.
