Kevin Feige on How ‘Infinity War’ Will Celebrate Marvel Studios’ 10th Anniversary

Next year will mark one full decade since Robert Downey Jr. uttered “I am Iron Man,” an announcement much bigger and far more consequential than anyone realized at the time.

In the years since the first Iron Man, Marvel Studios has dominated Hollywood in an unprecedented fashion, releasing 14 subsequent films to date that have grossed a staggering $4.4 billion domestically. Due next summer is Avengers: Infinity War, perhaps Marvel’s most ambitious release yet, bringing together just about every hero who’s been onscreen since 2008.

In an interview with ComingSoon, the head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, took a moment to reflect on what has been accomplished thus far — and what is still to come. “It sort of blows my mind when I think about that,” Feige says. “We’ll have 20 films in 10 years.”

It really is a mind-boggling achievement, especially when you consider the superhero movie felt all but dead at the beginning of this century, with the stench of Batman and Robin lingering over the genre’s (apparent) corpse. In 2005 Batman Begins changed that, bringing a sense of gritty realism along with a top-notch creative team. Then Iron Man arrived and introduced the idea of a shared cinematic universe, with the revolutionary post-credits scene between Tony Stark and Nick Fury.

Years later, here we are, a week after a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opened by thoroughly owning the box office, and a few months away from Spider-man: Homecoming, soon to be followed by Thor: Ragnarok — all of which, Feige promises, is building toward Infinity War.

“I know we’re very proud of the last 10 years and we want to celebrate that somehow,” he says. “Infinity War will, frankly, be that celebration.”

Here’s to that, and to hopefully 10 more in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.