More than two decades after Kevin Feige appeared on The Hollywood Reporter's Next Gen list in 2003, the career arc of the Marvel Studios chief stands as a trajectory that would leave almost any producer envious.
Born in Boston and raised in New Jersey, Feige faced repeated setbacks early on. USC's film school turned him down five times before finally accepting him. After his studies, he secured an unpaid internship with Superman director Richard Donner and Donner's wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. He went on to work as an assistant to Shuler Donner, a job that led to an associate producer credit on Fox's 2000 release X-Men.
Feige's enthusiasm for Marvel caught the attention of Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad, who brought him on to supervise how other studios handled Marvel superheroes. Feige later told THR that throughout his years as a Marvel Studios producer, before being named president of production in 2006, he studied the various productions and was "thinking always, 'One day, if I'm in a position of power, I'll do things this way; I'm going to not do things like that.'"
When he was chosen for the Next Gen list in the fall of 2003, Feige held the title of executive vice president at Marvel Studios. He had also just executive produced Ang Lee's Hulk, a Universal summer release starring Eric Bana as physicist Bruce Banner, who becomes a green-skinned alter ego when angered.
THR's review at the time praised the film for its "visual energy, genuine artistry and compelling human emotions," but the movie earned a modest $245 million worldwide against a $137 million budget. Three years after its release, Marvel Studios bought back the rights to the character and put out The Incredible Hulk in 2008, led by Edward Norton.
Creative differences between Norton and the studio opened the door for Mark Ruffalo to assume the role in 2012's The Avengers. Ruffalo is set to return as the Hulk in Disney's anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, which arrives in theaters Dec. 18 with a sprawling lineup of A-list stars. That film marks the 39th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which Feige helped launch in 2008 with Iron Man.
Feige now holds the titles of Marvel Studios president and Marvel chief creative officer. In 2025, he gave an endowment to USC, the school that once rejected him, to establish the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production.
On his Next Gen questionnaire back in 2003, Feige was asked to identify the greatest challenge of his job. His answer: "Expanding and redefining the public's perception of a 'comic book movie.'" This story originally appeared in the Nov. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
