Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is head of Marvel Studios?
Kevin Feige (/ˈfaɪɡi/, FYE-gee; born June 2, 1973)[1][2] is an American film producer who has been president of Marvel Studios since 2007.[3] The films he has produced have a combined worldwide box office gross of over $17 billion.[4] Feige is a member of the Producers Guild of America. In 2019, he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing Black Panther.
By November 2017, Disney was looking to develop a new Marvel television series for their streaming service Disney+. In July 2018, Feige noted discussions had begun with Disney regarding any potential involvement Marvel Studios could have with the streaming service, since Feige felt the service was "an important thing for the company". In September 2018, it was reported that Marvel Studios was developing several limited series centered on "second tier" characters from the MCU films who had not and were unlikely to star in their own films. Each series was expected to be six to eight episodes, and would be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, with Feige taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development. Feige noted the series being developed for the streaming service would "tell stories... that we wouldn't be able to tell in a theatrical experience – a longer-form narrative".
With Marvel heading into bankruptcy, the imprint was discontinued in 1995. In retrospect, Stewart felt that "Maybe it was doomed from the beginning, there just wasn’t enough of a market. Was it because we couldn’t get into the record stores? I don’t know." The Marvel Music brand has since been repurposed as a unit of Marvel Studios that publishes its film soundtracks.
Jerry Calabrese, the president of Marvel Entertainment Group and Avi Arad, head of Marvel Films and a director of Toy Biz, were assigned tandem control of Marvel Studios. Under Calabrese and Arad, Marvel sought to control pre-production by commissioning scripts, hiring directors, and casting characters, providing the package to a major studio partner for filming and distribution. Arad said of the goal for control, "When you get into business with a big studio, they are developing a hundred or 500 projects; you get totally lost. That isn't working for us. We're just not going to do it anymore. Period." Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally. In the following December, Marvel Entertainment Group went through a reorganization plan, including Marvel Studios as part of its strategic investment. By 1997, Marvel Studios was actively pursuing various film productions based on Marvel characters, including the eventual films "X-Men" (2000), "Daredevil" (2003), "Elektra" (2005) and "Fantastic Four" (2005). Unproduced projects included "Prince Namor", based on the character Namor and to be directed by Philip Kaufman, and "Mort the Dead Teenager", based on the comic book of the same name and written by John Payson and "Mort" creator Larry Hama. 
Marvel was developing a Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network to premiere in fall 1998. However, due to the bankruptcy the series was canceled after only character designs and a one-minute promotional reel were made.
In August 2015, Marvel Studios was moved into the Walt Disney Studios, with president Kevin Feige now reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter, who continues to oversee Marvel Television and Marvel Animation that were previously a part of Marvel Studios. Disney received ownership rights to the thirteen DreamWorks films it distributed, in compensation for outstanding loans as DreamWorks was restructured into Amblin Partners.
After Marvel Entertainment was bought by the Walt Disney Company and Marvel Studios became its "own entity", without other companies working with them as distribution companies, the studio commissioned a new production logo for their films and television series starting with "Thor: The Dark World", the first film to feature solely the Marvel logo. Feige explained that "We didn’t want to re-invent the wheel [from the previous logo], but we wanted it to feel bigger, to feel more substantial, [and] like all great studio logos, you need a fanfare, and we’d never had that before." Therefore, Marvel commissioned Brian Tyler, who had just scored "Iron Man 3" and "The Dark World" for them, to compose a new "spectacular" fanfare to accompany the logo.
Following Marvel Entertainment Group's (MEG) ToyBiz deal in 1993, Avi Arad of ToyBiz was named President and CEO of Marvel Films division and of New World Family Filmworks, Inc., a New World Entertainment subsidiary. New World was MEG's former parent corporation and later a fellow subsidiary of the Andrews Group. Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 as Marvel would start up Marvel Films including Marvel Films Animation. Marvel Films Animation shared Tom Tataranowicz with New World Animation as head of development and production. New World Animation ("The Incredible Hulk"), Saban ("X-Men") and Marvel Films Animation ("Spider-Man") each produced a Marvel series for television for the 1996–1997 season. It was Marvel Films Animation's only production. By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox struck a deal to make a film based on the X-Men.
By November 2017, Disney was developing a Marvel series specifically for release on its new streaming service Disney+, which it planned to launch before the end of 2019. In September 2018, it was reported that Marvel Studios was developing several limited series for the service, to be centered on "second tier" characters from the MCU films who had not and were unlikely to star in their own films; the actors who portrayed the characters in the films were expected to reprise their roles for the limited series. Stories for each series were still being decided on, but the series were expected to be six to eight episodes each and have a "hefty [budget] rivaling those of a major studio production". The series would be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development, focusing on "continuity of story" with the films and "handling" the actors who would be reprising their roles from the films. 
In April 2013, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that the film rights to Daredevil and his associated characters reverted to Marvel from 20th Century Fox in October 2012, allowing those characters to be used within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As explained by head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb in 2015, Marvel Studios had "first dibs" on the character once the rights had reverted. Drew Goddard pitched a new "Daredevil" film to Marvel, but Marvel was not looking to create an R-rated film, and Goddard did not want a "watered down version" of the character, as he also explained in 2015: "I went into Marvel and talked to them about making it as a movie a couple of years ago, long after the Affleck movie. But what we all sort of realized is that, this movie doesn't want to cost $200 million. The thing about Matt Murdock is, he's not saving the world. He's just keeping his corner clean. So it would feel wrong to have spaceships crashing in the middle of the city. But because of that, Marvel on the movie side is not in the business of making $25 million movies. They're going big, as they should." Marvel Studios eventually decided that the character would be better served in a television series.
Dedicated to producing films based on Marvel Comics characters, the studio has been involved in three Marvel-character film franchises to have exceeded $1 billion in North American revenue: the "X-Men", "Spider-Man", and Marvel Cinematic Universe multi-film franchises. The "Spider-Man" franchise is licensed to Sony Pictures. Since 2012, Marvel Studios' films are distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, having previously been distributed by Paramount Pictures from 2008 to 2011. Universal Pictures distributed "The Incredible Hulk" (2008) and has the right of first refusal to distribute any future Hulk films produced by Marvel Studios, while Sony Pictures distributed "" (2017) and will distribute any future Spider-Man films produced in conjunction with Marvel Studios.
At the end of August 2015, Marvel Entertainment's film subsidiary Marvel Studios was integrated into The Walt Disney Studios, leaving Marvel Television and Marvel Animation (formerly part of Marvel Studios) under Marvel Entertainment and CEO Isaac Perlmutter's control.
By 2005, Marvel Entertainment began planning to independently produce its own films and distribute them through Paramount Pictures. Previously, Marvel had co-produced several superhero films with Columbia Pictures, New Line Cinema and others, including a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox. Marvel made relatively little profit from its licensing deals with other studios and wanted to get more money out of its films while maintaining artistic control of the projects and distribution. Avi Arad, head of Marvel's film division, was pleased with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films at Sony, but was less pleased about others. As a result, they decided to form Marvel Studios, Hollywood's first major independent movie studio since DreamWorks.
In 2004, Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics's new parent corporation, struck a deal with Lions Gate Entertainment to produce a series of eight direct-to-video animated movies under the name of Marvel Animated Features in conjunction with Marvel Studios, Marvel's direct film subsidiary. Eric Rollman was hired by Marvel as Executive Vice President, Home Entertainment & TV Production for Marvel Studios to oversee the deal with Lionsgate.
In September 2015, Perlmutter stopped overseeing the development of Marvel Studios. Disney felt the studio head, Kevin Feige, should report directly to the chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, Alan Horn, so all cinematic properties of Disney, including Pixar and Lucasfilm, were under one management structure. The restructuring was allegedly due to Feige's "frustration" of working with Perlmutter as well as some alleged controversial comments and actions by Perlmutter, such as replacing the casting of Terrence Howard as James Rhodes with Don Cheadle because black people "look the same." A person with knowledge of his creative approach said, "Ike Perlmutter neither discriminates nor cares about diversity, he just cares about what he thinks will make money." 
Jeph Loeb, who oversees Marvel Television and the television properties of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, still reports to Perlmutter.
"Big Hero 6" was produced solely by Walt Disney Animation Studios, although several members of Marvel's creative team were involved in the film's production including Joe Quesada, Marvel's chief creative officer, and Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel Television. According to an interview with Axel Alonso by CBR, Marvel did not have any plans to publish a tie-in comic. Disney planned to reprint the Marvel version of "Big Hero 6" themselves, but reportedly Marvel disagreed. They eventually came to agreement that Yen Press would publish the Japanese manga version of "Big Hero 6" for Disney.
Arad's second-in-command, Kevin Feige, realized that unlike Spider-Man and the X-Men, whose film rights were licensed to Sony and Fox, respectively, Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the Avengers. Feige, a self-professed "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. To raise capital, the studio secured funding from a seven-year, $525 million revolving credit facility with Merrill Lynch. Marvel's plan was to release individual films for their main characters and then merge them in a crossover film. Arad, who doubted the strategy yet insisted that it was his reputation that helped secure the initial financing, resigned the following year.
In 2007, at 33 years old, Feige was named studio chief. In order to preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel Studios formed a creative committee of six people familiar with its comic book lore: Feige, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, Marvel Comics' president of publishing Dan Buckley, Marvel's chief creative officer Joe Quesada, writer Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, who oversaw the committee. Feige initially referred to the shared narrative continuity of these films as the "Marvel Cinema Universe", but later used the term "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Since the franchise expanded to other media, this phrase has been used by some to refer to the feature films only. Marvel has designated the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth-199999 within the continuity of the company's multiverse, a collection of fictional alternate universes.
Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American motion picture studio based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California and is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, itself a wholly owned division of The Walt Disney Company, with film producer Kevin Feige serving as president. Previously, the studio was a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment until Disney reorganized the companies in August 2015.
Ideas for a film based on the Avengers began in 2003, with Avi Arad, the CEO of Marvel Studios, first announcing plans to develop the film in April 2005, after Marvel Enterprises declared independence by allying with Merrill Lynch to produce a slate of films that would be distributed by Paramount Pictures. Marvel discussed their plans in a brief presentation to Wall Street analysts; the studio's intention was to release individual films for the main characters—to establish their identities and familiarize audiences with them—before merging the characters together in a crossover film. Screenwriter Zak Penn, who wrote "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), became attached to the film in 2006, and was hired by Marvel Studios to write the film in June 2007. In the wake of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Marvel negotiated with the Writers Guild of America to ensure that it could create films based on its comic book counterparts, including Captain America, Ant-Man and The Avengers. After the successful release of "Iron Man" (2008) in May, the company set a July 2011 release date for "The Avengers". In September 2008, Marvel Studios reached an agreement with Paramount—an extension of a previous partnership—which gave the company distribution rights for five future Marvel films.
In September 2018, it was reported that Marvel Studios was developing several limited series for the streaming service Disney+, to be centered on "second tier" characters from the MCU films who had not and were unlikely to star in their own films. Characters being considered for series included Loki and Scarlet Witch, with the actors who portrayed the characters in the films expected to reprise their roles for the limited series. Each series was expected to be six to eight episodes, with a "hefty [budget] rivaling those of a major studio productions". The series would be produced by Marvel Studios rather than Marvel Television, with Feige taking a "hands-on role" in each series' development.
In February 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that Spider-Man would appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the character appearing in "Captain America: Civil War" and Sony releasing "" produced by Feige and Pascal on July 7, 2017. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films. Marvel Studios will also explore opportunities to integrate other characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into future Spider-Man films. In June 2015, Feige clarified that the initial Sony deal does not allow Spider-Man to appear in any of the MCU television series, as it was "very specific... with a certain amount of back and forth allowed." 20th Century Fox was able to change the powers of Negasonic Teenage Warhead for "Deadpool" by giving Marvel Studios the rights to Ego the Living Planet, who appears in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2".
In 2003, Maisel pitched Marvel Studios’ CEO and Chairman, Avi Arad and then pitched CEO, Isaac Perlmutter, on his idea of Marvel financing and producing its own movies in a connected cinematic universe. Perlmutter hired Maisel as Marvel Studios’ President. To execute his plan, Maisel engineered a slate-structure financing to total $525 million. 
In 2005, Maisel was promoted to Vice Chairman of Marvel Studios and, in 2006, Maisel was also elevated to the Office of the CEO of Marvel Entertainment. Maisel was promoted to Marvel Studios’ Chairman in 2007 and oversaw the launch of the first Iron Man franchise film in 2008. In 2010, Maisel arranged the sale of Marvel to Disney for $4 billion. In 2014, Marvel and Disney recognized and thanked Maisel as the Founding Chairman of Marvel Studios in the credits of .
Brian Cunningham, editor of "Wizard" comic book magazine, believed that Avi Arad was successful in organizing strategic alliances and exercising fiscal responsibility in multimedia expansion. Cunningham said of Arad's leadership of the studio following its parent company's near-bankruptcy, "The fact the "X-Men" is primed to be the biggest movie of the summer speaks volumes about the turnaround for Marvel. From my observation, he's focused on a lot more in diversifying Marvel, doing things that proliferate Marvel characters in the mainstream." Arad sought to protect Marvel's image by serving as executive producer in all Marvel film productions and being responsible for crossover marketing between Marvel properties. Arad had properties set up at different studios to create momentum so one studio would not cannibalize efforts with one property for the sake of another. By 2001, the success of Marvel Entertainment's Ultimate Marvel comics created leverage in Hollywood for Marvel Studios, pushing more properties into development.
In August 2015, Marvel Studios was placed into Walt Disney Studios, with Feige reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter. Marvel Television and subsidiary Marvel Animation were left under Marvel Entertainment and Perlmutter's control. "Fast Company" ranked Marvel Studios number eleven on its 2018 World's Most Innovative Companies list.
As of April 2017, Marvel Studios was housed on the second floor of the Frank G. Wells Building at the Disney studio lot.
In June 2010, Marvel Entertainment set up a television division within Marvel Studios, headed up by Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President, under which Marvel Animation would be operated. On October 18, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures acquired the distribution rights for "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" from Paramount Pictures with Paramount's logo and credit remaining on the films.
The new logo appeared on all subsequent studio productions set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe through "Captain America: Civil War". With the addition of the new logo, Marvel Studios also added a fanfare to accompany the logo, composed by Brian Tyler, who wrote the scores to "Iron Man 3", "Thor: The Dark World", and "Avengers: Age of Ultron". It was featured on the films "Thor: The Dark World", "", and "Guardians of the Galaxy".