Kevin Feige: Big screen comic book adaptations can go on for years

Kevin Feige doesn't think people will tire of superhero movies.

The Marvel Studios president, 49, says non-comic book readers "don't understand" that films can be adapted from the material and stay relevant in the same way that movies are made from books.

He said: "I’ve been at Marvel Studios for over 22 years, and most of us here at Marvel Studios have been around a decade or longer together.

From probably my second year at Marvel, people were asking, ‘Well, how long is this going to last? Is this fad of comic book movies going to end?'

“I didn’t really understand the question. Because to me, it was akin to saying after ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ‘Well, how many more movies can be made off of novels? Do you think the audience will sour on movies being adapted from books?’

"You would never ask that because there’s an inherent understanding among most people that a book can be anything. A novel can have any type of story whatsoever. So it all depends on what story you’re translating. Non-comic readers don’t understand that it’s the same thing in comics."

Feige - who is also the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise - admitted it is a "great privilege" to be able to adapt Marvel comics, which began in 1939, into films.

He added: "There’s 80 years of the most interesting, emotional, ground-breaking stories that have been told in the Marvel comics, and it is our great privilege to be able to take what we have and adapt them.

"Another way to do that is adapting them into different genres, and what types of movies we want to make."

Feige believes if the movies are made "right" then there's no reason why comic book adaptations wouldn't be able to continue for a long time.

He added to 'The Movie Business Podcast': "I found that if we tell the story right, and we adapt them in a way that the audience still - knock on wood so far - is following us along 22-plus years later ... we can [make] any types of movies that share two things: the Marvel Studios logo above the title and a seed of an idea from our publishing history."