We all know that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios are planning for the future when it comes to both their existing and upcoming comic book movie franchises, but it's fair to say that none of could have quite possibly imagined just how far ahead they're looking.

Or perhaps Iger has a built-in GPS for acquiring studios that can tell stories. Much of Marvel’s success can be attributed to Feige. He has a special understanding of comics, fans, superheroes, and narrative. He concedes that Marvel won’t recover the film rights to Spider-Man or the X-Men anytime soon but says Marvel has something more valuable: a universe of thousands of characters it controls entirely.



Feige can produce an unlimited number of films with interweaving story lines and characters, creating a vast audience for almost any Marvel movie. People might show up for The Avengers, meet the Black Widow, and come back for her movie, too. There’s a map of films reaching far into the next decade on the wall of Feige’s office. “It’s like looking through the Hubble telescope. You go, ‘What’s happening back there? I can sort of see it,’ ” he laughs. “They printed out a new one recently that went to 2028.”

Of course, while many of those plans are likely to be provisional at this stage, it shows that Feige's long-term vision for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is something we should all be very excited about. He recently hinted that he believes that approaching these characters as the James Bond movies have in terms of simply recasting the lead part and continuing the story would be a better option that constant ill-received reboots. As this world of heroes continues to expand both on the big screen and commercially, it's likely that the next decade or more is going to be something truly special for us fans. Now, where's my Captain Britain movie Kevin?