Collider has a lengthy interview up with Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios in which they cover a lot of familiar ground with the movie side of the business, but they also get down to talking a bit about the TV and animation side now that they have the full backing of Disney who is rebranding channels and looking for content to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. With the Marvel Comics stable of characters being so vast, there’s a lot of opportunities in there, though it does look as if we won’t see a Marvel/Pixar movie. If they can do what they did with Tangled though in terms of quality of animation, I don’t think we’ll have too many issues, especially with Pixar as a guiding light.
When it comes to the TV and animation side, Feige says:
We talked last year about Marvel doing TV. So what is it going to take to get Marvel on TV?
Feige: I don’t know if you have ever spoken to Jeff Loeb, but he is actively working on it. People always ask about Disney. “How is the change? What does that mean? What is happening with Disney?” From my side, I have a few more partners that I can turn to and get things we might need for the movies, but not much has changed on the movie side. TV is where it is going to make all of the difference. I think Marvel on television went from a “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we got to that someday?” to “it’s going to be happening in the not too distant future.”
Does that mean that we might get some announcements at Comic Con? Or is it something that you guys are still trying to figure out what will be the right property?
Feige: I think like movies, they have things in development. I don’t frankly know the world of TV. I know pilot season and when that is and things coming together. All I know is that whenever pilot season is again, which I don’t know, there will be Marvel properties that will be candidates to go into those pilots. But Loeb is the guy to talk to and if there are any announcements made at Comic Con he will be the one making them.
John Lasseter recently said that there will not be a Marvel/Pixar movie. Is that for sure? Because that is a marriage that I think would be the greatest thing ever.
Feige: Let me put it this way, I think there will be a Marvel animated movie at some point. I think that would be cool. I think becoming part of the Walt Disney company and have 8,000 plus characters and have that not become a reality? Whether that is Pixar or not…Marvel is about existing Marvel IP. Pixar, at least as far as I know, is about original IP. None of those are based on anything are they?
They are original ideas.Feige: I think we have been pretty successful bringing the Marvel characters to life and clearly they have been pretty successful in coming up with new stuff for every new movie or making sequels to their successful stuff. So I don’t know why they would change that.
I have to ask you. Since you are planning an animated movie, are you looking at CGI or are you looking at hand drawn?Feige: I’m not saying we are planning an animated movie. Of course, there have been those kind of “What if…?” discussions. Aren’t they all CG now?
Disney is still doing some hand drawn stuff.
Feige: I don’t know. We will see.
