Marvel Studio’s eternal plan of a shared universe couldn’t have been possible without the audience’s connection to its heroes and villains. Not only that but interconnection with the actors and actresses who played the characters for many years.
But it seems like that’s not the case anymore. As MCU pushes through phase 4, a more team-friendly strategy has thrown out this approach. But why this change? Well, a former Marvel employee took the initiative to come up with an answer.
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“It Varies, Project To Project, Cast To Cast”: Marvel Employee Opens Up About New Policies
Previously, Marvel fans have witnessed a long nine years contract between Marvel and the Avengers team. That includes Downey, alongside his Avengers co-stars Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, who agreed to six movie contracts. But now, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige previously confirmed that long-term deals are no longer a norm.
The lead executive mentioned the new deals could include exciting opportunities like “theme park attractions.” He added that talent who is “excited at the opportunity to do more things” is the studio’s preference now.
“It varies, project to project, cast to cast. Really, what we want are people that come in, are excited to be in the universe, are excited at the opportunity to do more things, as opposed to being locked into contractual obligations.”
In an exclusive interview, Marvel Studios’ former production lead attorney Paul Sarker shared his thoughts on why Marvel chose to abandon the long-term contracts with the stars.
Sarker said, “So I mean, as you know, I’ve been gone for six years. So that change in direction is not something I really have first-hand insight into. What I would think, just purely speculation is, that it’s challenging to have actors commit to the next, potentially, 10 years of their life.
Sarker continued, “Right, like, yeah, you know, that’s, that’s, and I think, Kevin [Feige], from Kevin’s perspective, it’s more sellable, to have a shorter-term deal because it’s not as huge a commitment like, oh, ‘Do I want to be, you know, Bucky for the next nine years, or whatever, however many years?’ And it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. So maybe you’re cool with that.”
Sarker Further Sheds Light On The Issue
Sarker also discussed how this new strategy is “more of a talent-friendly approach,” making the method “a little bit easier to sell.”
Sarker further added, “But the other thing is, I think Kevin, is more along the lines of like, his view is, we want people that want to be here. So we don’t want you to feel like this is daunting, Oh, I gotta do this for the next 10 years. If you do 10 years’ worth of movies, we want it to be because you sort of wanted to and after each one, you want to re-up and do more.”
“So I think it’s more of a talent-friendly approach to having the shorter-term deals or fewer options, and I don’t know for sure how much shorter they are now, because I don’t do the deals anymore. But that would be the reason I would think is that it’s a little bit easier to sell to town,” Sarker concluded.
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