Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed that Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was close to being fired in 2015 before Iger stepped in to prevent it from happening.
Talk to CNBC, Iger said Marvel president and former president Ike Perlmutter wanted Feige to leave for unknown reasons. “In 2015, he was about to fire Kevin Feige, who was running Marvel… and I thought it was a mistake so I stepped in to prevent that from happening,” Iger said. “I think Kevin is a very, very talented executive you know… Marvel’s track record speaks for itself.”
Iger made the call to shift production of the Marvel movie to Alan Horn, who was running Walt Disney Studios at the time, taking it out of Perlmutter.
When asked if this would generate any “malice,” Iger said, “You have to ask Ike about that.”
“But let’s put it this way. He wasn’t happy about it. And I think that unhappiness persists to this day,” Iger said. While Horn has since left Disney (he’s currently the CEO of WB Discovery), Perlmutter remains the president of Marvel Entertainment.
The MCU has been wildly successful under Feige’s leadership, raking in billions of dollars at the box office, with many new entries each year. The latest MCU movie is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which premieres on February 17.
Iger rejoined Disney late last year and has begun to make major changes at the company. He is lay off 7,000 people amid migration cost savings of $5.5 billion that also includes important structural changes at the 100-year-old company. He’s also recently announced Toy Story 5, Frozen 3 and Zootopia 2. Disney also confirmed that Disney Plus subscribers continue to grow in the USbut overall decrease.
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