To this point, there has been a certain uniformity in the director choices that Marvel Studios has made for their feature films. From Jon Favreau to Joss Whedon to James Gunn to Peyton Reed, every single filmmaker behind one of the company's projects to this point has been a white man. In the near future that may change in a big way, however, as Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has gone on record saying that they are looking to have more diversity when it comes to making both their Black Panther and Captain Marvel projects.
With Ant-Man now less than a month away, the executive/producer recently sat down for an extensive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, and it was during this conversation that the subject of diversification in director choices came up. Discussing whether or not there has been a concentrated effort to find a black filmmaker to make Black Panther and a female filmmaker to make Captain Marvel, Feige started by saying that just getting the right person for the job is what's important first and foremost, but then he did express that those two projects in particular have Marvel steering away from white male directors. Acknowledging a "big shift" in both the culture and the industry, Feige explained,
What's exciting about Marvel, go back and look at the source material: It's been diverse in a cutting-edge way going back to the '60s, and I think we've represented that effortlessly and accurately in the movies we've made up to this point, but certainly with Black Panther and Captain Marvel doing it in a much more overt and purposeful way.
In the interview, Kevin Feige also confirms that we should be hearing about a director for both Captain Marvel and Black Panther before the end of the summer ("Black Panther especially), but he's not exactly giving any hints away in regard to the choices that Marvel is considering for the two gigs. When asked if Selma helmer Ava DuVernay was one of the filmmakers being considered for Black Panther - as has been rumored these past few weeks - Feige said in perfect political fashion,
We've met with her for sure. We've met with a number of people for a number of movies. She has been one of them.
In addition to potentially being the first Marvel Studio films not directed by white men, Black Panther and Captain Marvel will be the first movies in the continuity to feature non-white male protagonists as well. Unfortunately, we still have a few years before they actually arrive in theaters, with the former set for release on July 6, 2018, and the latter on November 2, 2018. If the director choices are made in the next couple months, that means we should be hearing a lot more about these projects soon, so stay tuned for more details!
