On October 9 – 11 I attended a Disney Press Event for Thor: Ragnarok. My hotel and airfare and meals were taken care of while I was in L.A. Opinions and observations as well as recaps and such are all my own. This post will also contain some affiliate links to Amazon.com.

Prior to going on this trip the bloggers received a list of people who we were going to interview. We had a surprise interview and that was with the President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige. I was fortunate enough in the past to be part of a group interview with Kevin for Avengers, Age of Ultron back in 2015. This was an excellent interview and I was even able to ask a couple of questions that I wanted answered. Being the comic book geeky guy on the trip I had to ask a comic book question. Then I thought of all the great female characters in the comics and also in the movies. I had to ask about that as well, but we’ll get to that.

Early on in the interview someone asked Kevin if we would see the Avengers: Infinity War trailer anytime soon. This was a teaser trailer that was shown at D23 and there have been a select few that were there and got to see this amazing teaser. So, when asked when we would all see that trailer Kevin’s response was “Someday, Someday.” I personally hope that “someday” means we will see it around the time of Thor: Ragnarok hitting the theater. The tone of this interview was a very happy and exciting one. We had just come off a very successful screening the night before. This movie is incredible and I cannot wait for everyone to see it. You can read all about what I thought of it in my review of Thor: Ragnarok.

Kevin came in wearing his signature ball cap and immediately asked us if we liked the movie. The response was an overwhelming yes. The movie was amazing, so cool and so different. Kevin was asked what he thought of having such a strong movie year with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok being released and this year being an Outer Space year. Kevin also pointed out that this year we also had Spider-Man: Homecoming which was grounded in high school on Earth in between the two cosmic movies. Kevin went on to say, “It’s pretty cool and it indicates what I’ve always wanted people to understand that just because something’s based on a comic doesn’t mean they’re all the same. Doesn’t mean they all inhabit the same exact tonal world. I always knew and was hoping would be pretty exciting.“

The next question asked was whether Thor would meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Anyone who has heard anything about the teaser trailer for Infinity War knows that that will happen in that movie. Kevin indicated that there will be plenty of interaction among the cosmic adventurers as they will spent a lot of time together in the movie. We then shifted gears and talked about all the filming that is going on and that has finished for upcoming movies like the Untitled Avengers movie, Black Panther and Ant-Man and Wasp.

When asked about the look and feel of Thor: Ragnarok and whether it was Marvel’s choice or the director’s choice Kevin stated, “That was our idea perfected and improved by Taika. As we always do in our movies, go to a new place. Go to an unexpected place. Look at what we did with Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, the third Captain American film, with Civil War. We always look at a third film, Infinity War in the case of Avengers coming up, as an opportunity to take what the fans like, and take them to a totally unexpected fun place.“

Kevin went on to say that Chris Hemsworth would ask him when he would get another Avenger in one of his movies. The world of Thor in the comics is filled with great characters in Hela, Valkyrie and more in the mythology but Kevin did agree that Chris was right and they quickly realized that Hulk would be that character to bring into the Thor movies. He said, “Very quickly we realized Hulk would be that guy. Seeing Thor and Hulk battle it out together is great. Seeing Banner and Thor being fish out of water is even better. So, suddenly, you have this great dynamic between them. So we decided well, I guess Hulk, when we last saw him on a Quinjet heading up into the atmosphere, he kept going, and he got caught in a wormhole and he ended up on Sakaar.”

With the mention of Sakaar I had my question locked and ready. I asked what was the impetus for pulling in the elements of the Planet Hulk storyline from the comics into this movie. Kevin replied, “It was always something, Planet Hulk, in which Hulk finds himself forced into these gladiatorial games, was always a great comic. That image of Hulk with these big battle weapons and that big helmet, we loved. We never really thought we would be able to do it, in large part because Banner is not a part of those comics. He’s Hulk the whole time, and we love Mark Ruffalo. We wouldn’t want to do a movie without Mark Ruffalo in it. So, I always sort of thought there wouldn’t really be that opportunity. As we were putting Thor: Ragnarok together, we realized, this is where we could do it. This is how we could do, a taste of it. This is not the Planet Hulk story, but it’s certainly the inspiration of getting to see that. Even characters like Korg and Miek who, as performed by Taika (He’s Korg), steal the whole movie. They are from that [Planet Hulk] Story as well.”

I also asked if there would be an all female superhero team movie soon like A-Force from the comics. Kevin then told us a story about a recent conversation that he had with the female actresses who play the main heroes in the Marvel movies. Kevin said, “I think we certainly have enough powerful characters to do that. When and how, I don’t know, but I recently found myself in an undisclosed location. Somebody tapped on my shoulder and I turned around and there was Scarlett Johansson, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Tessa Thompson, Pom Klementieff. All saying, hey, when are we going to do a movie. So that was pretty, that was pretty overwhelming. Zoe Saldana was also standing there.” I personally think that they should introduce some additional female characters like She-hulk, Ms. Marvel, Ironheart and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts in her Rescue armor. That would be epic. Of course it could quickly get out of hand with so many characters but it would be cool to think about.

The interview was going along really well and so it was time to ask the question that a room full of bloggers wanted to know. What about that line in Spider-Man: Homecoming about bloggers? Kevin’s response was, “That was an ad lib. A comedic, comedic ad lib from Mr. Downey. One of the many things he just says. Moments before that, he says something about a human/dog hybrid and puppies and who knows what he’s talking about? It’s just funny. And when we shot it, it just sort of went past me and we cut it together. And only in sort of the early screenings I went, oh, “I’m gonna hear about this.” It was just him being funny.“

Kevin was then asked who is his favorite Avenger. While he did not come out and pick one he did say that he liked how with each new movie release another new Avenger rises to the top and he thinks that with Thor: Ragnarok we are going to see Thor becoming many people’s favorite. I think that we’re going to see many more Hulk fans, too. He then said, “But I think as we approach our ten year anniversary, it’s impossible not to look back on Iron Man one and, what [Jon] Favreau did and what [Robert] Downey Jr. did and continues to do that really is the foundation for everything we’ve done. So, that experience of Iron Man one was our first. In many ways, it is the one I look back at quite fondly, but I don’t have favorites.“

We thanked Kevin for his time and even though the interview was fairly short it was packed with some great information. I loved hearing about the possibility of an all female superhero movie, more about the comics and even the process of getting to the story of Thor and Hulk in the same movie. You’re really going to be happy when you finally get to see Thor: Ragnarok in a few weeks.

Do yourself a favor and watch these movies before you see Thor: Ragnarok. You don’t need to to enjoy the movie, it just enhances that enjoyment.

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THOR: RAGNAROK opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd!