Kevin Feige Says Marvel May Now Release One Sequel And One New Franchise Each Year, Also Denies ‘Planet Hulk’

"Here we are now, 14 years since the first Marvel movie I worked on. At that point it had been eight years and for about those eight years people had been asking ‘How much longer gonna last?’ ‘When are people gonna get tired of these movies?’ And my answer always was ‘People only get tired if a whole slew of terrible ones come out.’ And it was our job to make sure that doesn’t happen," Marvel honco Kevin Feige said last week. "If there are other people out there interested in that not happening as well, I’m all for it!" And while there have been patchy superhero movies (see Sony‘s "The Amazing Spider-Man" for example), for Marvel at least, they’ve kept the quality level mostly consistent, so why not continue?

In fact, we’ve already heard they’ve got a roadmap of movies loosely planned to 2028, and last week the studio set dates for five new films through 2019. And while the first Phases of the Marvel release schedule has largely focused on sequels and building up to "The Avengers" and "The Avengers: Age Of Ultron," Feige suggests a new approach that would new characters populating the big screen.

"[‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘] fulfilled our desire to do something different to start producing, each year, a film that was the sequel to a pre-existing, successful franchise and do something new," Feige told IGN. "We’re doing that next year with ‘Age of Ultron,’ with ‘Ant-Man,’ and hope to maybe continue that model in the coming years."

So what will those movies be? Of course, with San Diego Comic-Con coming up, Feige is playing a bit coy, but he’s also not saying too much as contracts will need to be signed as he confirmed with Collider. He notes that both "Captain America 3" and "Thor 3" are in development, but there has been no casting yet on "Doctor Strange." And when quizzed about a possible "Black Panther" or female-led Marvel movie entry, Feige said it’s still a matter of planning. "I think we could, it’s a matter of when. It’s a matter of what are those dates, it’s a matter of juggling multiple, successful franchises," he said. "Is there a downside to managing multiple, successful franchises?  I believe we’re figuring out that there is, which is having the time to do them all.  So, at what point do we hold back a franchise or have three or four years between parts of a franchise in order to introduce new ones?  Or do you introduce new ones within the body of the films?  We’re looking at all those things right now."

And one more element Feige is figuring out is where director James Gunn sits with his future at Marvel. "…my contract just says another Marvel film, it doesn’t specify," he told Badass Digest, but if ‘Guardians’ does what it should, we reckon he’ll have his pick of the litter at Marvel.

And lastly, Feige back ups Gunn’s comments to us about a movie based on "Planet Hulk"—namely, it’s not happening. "…there are no plans for ‘Planet Hulk’ anytime soon," Feige told IGN. "I think what’s cool about the ‘Planet Hulk’ story is it’s all Hulk. He’s a gladiator, he’s fighting all these creatures on another world. Yes, some of those creatures show up in [‘Guardians of the Galaxy’], which makes people think, ‘Oh, maybe it could exist.’ And maybe it could exist, someday. I don’t think that’s the first place we would go though for the very reason that you stated, which is, if we were ever able to do a standalone Hulk movie, 60 percent of the fun would be seeing Mark Ruffalo leading a Marvel movie—and that’s what we would do if we ever went down that road."

So there you go, your latest round-up of Marvel madness. More to come as Comic-Con looms.