Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter moved to fire Kevin Feige in 2015, but Disney CEO Bob Iger stopped him

Kevin Feige has done amazing things with Marvel Studios since launch Iron man in 2008. At the time, no one would have thought it would explode into what it has become. In those early years, Feige was dealing with a lot of pressure to keep making one great film after another, and I imagine he’s still dealing with that pressure today. But it was in those earlier years that Feige had to answer to the president of Marvel Entertainment Isaac Perlmuter which was also under the influence of the activist investor Nelson Petz.

In a recent CNBC interview, Bob Iger he explained that Perlmutter and Peltz had “a curious dynamic”, and Peltz was reportedly not happy about losing oversight of Marvel’s film operations. So, in 2015, around the time of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Perlmutter and Peltz wanted to fire Kevin Feige. Iger said of the situation:

“Our records indicate that both Ike and Nelson were working together to try to encourage the board or get the board to put Nelson on the board. They have a relationship that goes back quite some time. We bought Marvel in 2009. I promised Ike the job that he would continue to run Marvel after that. Not forever, necessarily. But after. And in 2015 he was willing to fire Kevin Feige who ran the Marvel studio, the making of the film [operation] at that moment, and thought it was a mistake and stepped in to prevent that from happening. I think Kevin is an incredibly, incredibly talented executive, you know, Marvel’s track record speaks for itself. And so I moved Marvel’s film operation from under Ike to the film studio under Alan Horn” (with Feige reporting directly to Horn, who retired from the company in 2021.)

When asked if that created ill will, Iger said, “You should ask Ike. But let’s put it this way. He wasn’t happy about it. And I think unhappiness exists today. And you know, what’s the connection between that and Nelson, his relationship. I think that’s something you can speculate about. I will not do that.

In 2015, it was reported that Feige had actually considered leaving Marvel before it was restructured. It was reported at the time that Feige was considering leaving the studio in part due to budget disagreements regarding Captain America Civil Warin which Perlmutter and the creative committee both wanted Feige to “scale”.

Iger stepped in and changed things up so Feige would no longer have to report to Perlmutter, and he also ended the creative committee’s influence on the cinematic side of the equation.

While Feige was thinking about his future at the time, Feige actually met with Warner Bros. to talk about overseeing DC movies! So if Iger hadn’t stepped in to save Feige’s job at Marvel Studios, he could be running DC Studios right now!

Source: Deadline