Shortly before the opening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we had the chance to chat with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about what the momentous events depicted in the film mean for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as the ABC television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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We also asked him about Marvel's looming 2016 showdown with Batman vs. Superman (this interview was conducted before it was revealed Captain America 3 was the film slated to go head-to-head with BvS).Be advised that the following interview isso only read this if you've already seen Cap 2!Well, I think the obvious way is that the overall structure and glue that held it together in many ways, in the form of SHIELD, is gone. That was an idea we had many years ago, to change the game for Avengers 2, which we certainly have. It also led into something that I had always -- I think Chris Evans was actually one of the first people I pitched it to on the set of The Avengers in Central Park in New York City on the last day of production, where they were all standing in a circle watching Thor and Loki shoot off back to Asgard. He said, "Okay, so we're doing 2. What are you thinking?" It was very early days then when I think I said, "Well, you know we love The Winter Soldier, and I have this crazy idea that the SSR [the Strategic Scientific Reserve] defeated Hydra, incorporated a lot of their scientists, that that's how SHIELD was founded, and, unbeknownst to anyone, a lot of what SHIELD's been doing has not been good. That's exposed, and Cap has to take it all down." He goes, "Holy s**t! Really?" After that reaction, I was like, "Yeah, that's the reaction we want! That'd be great!" And our screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely did an unbelievable job at bringing that to life; then Joe and Anthony Russo were completely obsessing over that idea when we first pitched it to them in our first meeting, and they began to build on that and make the movie you just watched.Well, I wouldn't say that that has been the driving motivation for it. If we had all those actors signed up for 50 years, we would still want to introduce these other characters, because that's what the Marvel Universe is, and that's what is fun about our job, is taking beloved elements from the comics and characters with great potential from the comics and making movies out of them. So I think we'd be doing that anyway.

Kevin Feige Talks Doctor Strange Movie

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Well, I would say two things. One is, there's an easy way to find out if you're curious, which is to watch the show. [Laughs] But the truth is, this had been in the works for a very long time, long before the TV show came about. When the TV show came up and the TV department said, "Hey, we're thinking about doing this," and Joss called me and said that he wanted to do this, I said, "Hey, that's great. Best of luck, sounds cool, but you need to know one thing..." [Laughs] "You need to know one thing about what we're doing in Captain America 2, and I really don't want to change it." They said, "Okay, you don't have to change it," and I went, "Okay! Thanks." The rest will be history come April 8th.Anything is possible. I would not say that that was the impetus for this.I don't look at it as moving away from one things as opposed to incorporating another thing -- again, just like the comics. The comics sort of have it all, and the idea that we continue -- do you ever play Grand Theft Auto, and you've got to get through one whole section of the world, and then another whole section of the city pops up; then you go throughout the entire city once they're all open? I feel like that's sort of what we're doing. We're opening other arenas that have always been there in publishing in the universe and incorporating them into the cinematic universe; the sandbox will just get bigger and bigger, in which we can play.Well, look, I would say that is not MCU canon, but when we made The Incredible Hulk, we didn't want to tell the origin story again, because we thought people were so familiar with it, which is why we didn't tell that. But you saw the way in which he was exposed to the gamma radiation in Ang Lee's version from the way you saw Bruce Banner was in the opening title sequence of The Incredible Hulk. So they're different. One reason we made Incredible Hulk was to get Hulk into the MCU canon.I think that'd be great. I think that'd be cool, someday. You know, who thought that Senator Stern would pop up again? That's part of the fun with the MCU.No, Namor I think is a little complicated, the way some of them are. Elektra I think we have. I think that was part of Daredevil, and that's clean and simple. Kingpin we either have or somehow share. I'm not 100 percent clear on that one.Well, you know, clearly one of the reasons we introduced her was to then have the potential, again, to open another side of the universe that we would then have access to. I think her relationship with Cap was great and meaningful in the books, and it would be fun to explore someday. Exactly when that is and how that is is part of early discussions on the next Cap movie.No, the cameo was a fun favor.It was not a "step," or whatever you call it. It was not an option.Good, me too!That was my understanding. I thought that that was what they announced, is that they'd do those four shows and then those characters from the four shows would team up for an event series or mini-series, whatever you call it. I think the job at hand there is very similar to our job at hand in the early days of the MCU: Make a great Iron Man movie, make a great Thor movie, make a great Cap movie, and then do our best to put them all together. I think that's what they're smartly focusing on now with the best Daredevil show they can make, the best Jessica Jones show they can make, and so on.I was very pleased, I was very pleased. The more the merrier.You know, we're still on that date, and we'll be announcing soon what the movie will be on that date. That's what we're actively working on as we get ready to firm up and get into preproduction on what will become the two films for '16 and the two films for '17... I hope [that announcement] is in the coming months. If it coincides with Comic-Con, that would be nice, but if it happens before that or after that, we'll see. It's not about the best time to make the announcement for us, it's about when the team coalesces and when we find the group of collaborators that we want to spend the next two or three years with to bring one of the movies to life.