Kevin Feige is opening up about the superhero movies that shaped the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While movies based on superheroes are some of the biggest in history, there once was a time when the idea of a movie based on a comic-book hero would fill fans with dread, as was the case with Howard the Duck, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the 1990 Captain America movie. While Sam Raimi's Spider-Man is seen as the turning point for not just Marvel movies but superhero movies as a genre, it was 1998's Blade and 2000's X-Men that helped kick off the modern era of superhero movies.

The importance of those two films cannot be understated, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige acknowledges as much in a recent interview. Speaking with Deadline ahead of Marvel's appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, Feige recounts how many people initially dismissed the studio's plan to turn Iron Man, considered a B-list character, into a movie. Feige says that Blade and X-Men showed that it didn't matter if it was a lesser-known character or a top-selling comic book, but that what was important was making the character stand out for audiences. This is the same model Marvel has used when bringing characters like Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel to the big screen. Feige said:

"When we were going to Comic-Con in 2007, when we were bringing Iron Man there with Jon Favreau, one media outlet did a story that read ‘Marvel Calls Out the ‘C’ Team’. People thought, ‘Well, are you going to be able to make anything of these characters that aren’t the major players if you don’t have Spider-Man or X-Men?’ People thought Marvel had nothing else. And we thought, ‘We have 8,567 other things.’ The audience wants to see a great piece of entertainment. I said for a long time that the one-two punch for Marvel, pre-dating me was Blade and then X-Men. Blade was a character that nobody knew from the comics, or very few people knew. It wasn’t advertised as being from Marvel Comics. X-Men was the No. 1 bestselling comic for the 15 years before the movie came out. Both of them did extremely well, and that instilled in us the notion that it is less about how many issues did you sell, or how famous was the animated show or the live-action series in the ’70s, but how engaging can you make the character, and how much of a new experience of a world can you bring to cinemas with that character. And that’s what we tried to do with Iron Man, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy."

X-Men and Blade Are Finally Joining the MCU

Blade and X-Men were two major influences in shaping the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has since gone on to redefine the superhero genre. Marvel Studios spent years showing it could take lesser-known characters from the comics and turn them into blockbuster brands. The Guardians of the Galaxy were likely as well known as Blade when both films went into production, and now they are one of the most famous teams in Marvel. Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, and Doctor Strange have become major global brands that are more well known now than in 2008 when the MCU began. History has a funny way of playing out. After 16 years of films and television series, the two franchises that paved the way for the MCU are finally set to join it, as Marvel Studios has plans for both the X-Men and Blade.

2024 is a big year for the X-Men. After the breakout success of X-Men '97, which is confirmed for both Seasons 2 and 3, the X-Men are about to make a splash on the big screen with Deadpool & Wolverine. That film will feature Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, alongside several cameos from other previous 20th Century Fox X-Men characters, teaming up just in time to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the first X-Men release. While Deadpool & Wolverine is expected to wrap up the 20th Century Fox X-Men storyline, Marvel Studios has hired The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes screenwriter Michael Lesslie to pen the script for the MCU X-Men movie.

Blade, meanwhile, has had a rocky road back to the big screen. Following the big announcement of Mahershala Ali's casting as Blade at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the movie has gone through two different directors and various screenwriters. The film has been delayed multiple times, and currently, it seems unlikely that it will make its November 7, 2025 release date. However, with another edition of Comic-Con just around the corner, there could be big announcements for both the X-Men and Blade.