Disney’s latest investor’s earnings call delivered some interesting corporate revelations concerningMarvel’sChairman Isaac Perlmutter who was really out to get Kevin Feige a few years ago, at least, before Bob Iger swooped in to save the MCU.
Iger’s first term as Disney CEO saw the company acquireMarvel Entertainmentin 2009, a $4 billion bargain that continues paying off, but even back in 2015, the studio was still under Perlmutter’s grip since he was then Marvel’s CEO. However, the 80-year-old’s name was brought up again when Iger addressed his backing of a Disney investor as a way to get a seat on the table again in recent times.
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As discussed by Iger with CNBC (viaDeadline), 8 years ago Perlmutter “was intent on firing Kevin Feige who was running Marvel’s studio, the movie-making [operation] at the time, and I thought that was a mistake and stepped in to prevent that from happening,” due to his faith and commitment towards is MCU vision.Iger then saved Feige by shifting Marvel’s movieoperations so that he’d have to report exclusively to Disney’s Chairman Alan Horn, thus causing Perlmutter to lose all control over the superhero business and, suffice it to say, “He was not happy about it.”
The reason why this matter came up again is that since 2022 Perlmutter has been vying for Nelson Peltz to get a seat on Disney’s board, a request that’s been put forward “no less than 20 times since July 2022,” with Iger calling the relationship between the two men “a curious dynamic.” When Disney bought Marvel, Iger promised Perlmutter “that he would continue to run Marvel after that. Not forever, necessarily,” and judging fromFeige’s results with the MCU throughout 15 years, that was clearly the right decision.
While these types of corporate struggles are not rare at all in giant empires like Disney’s, Perlmutter and Peltz’s recent attempts to acquire more power at the company have been labeled as a “coup” by some, and, considering how the former lost control, that logic it certainly makes sense. Perlmutter was a reclusive figure in Marvel’s world, who at one point allegedly said people wouldn’t notice the casting change for War Machine from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle because all Black people “look the same,” among many other controversies.
The MCU wouldn’t really hit its peak until a few years later after Iger rescued Feige, withAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgamerepresenting its finestand most commercially successful era. Even if Phase Four saw that success cool off a bit Kevin Feige’s legacy remains uncontested andAnt-Man and The Wasp: Quantumaniais giving people plentyof reasons to be excited about Phase Five.
