Marvel’s Kevin Feige Loves ‘Star Trek,’ Name Drops Several References in the MCU

Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige is a surprisingly cine-literate guy, which should be too shocking since he actually attended one of the most prestigious film programs in the country at USC. The man behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe is also a Star Trek geek, as he proves in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly where he compares several different decisions in the MCU to moments from the history of Star Trek.

While discussing the next two Avengers films, Feige made mention that some character arcs are coming to a close heading into their yet undisclosed plans for Phase IV, and the interviewer assumes he's talking about killing off major characters. Feige had this response...

"People always will jump to that. That’s not necessarily what we’re talking about. I talk a lot, because I’m a big-ass nerd, about Star Trek: The Next Generation, 'All Good Things.' That to me is one of the best series finales ever. That wasn’t about death. Picard went and played poker with the crew, something he should have done a long time ago, right?"

However, Feige isn't explicitly a TNG guy. He's also a fan of TOS and the six original films, as he made reference to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock in an interview with Crave last November while talking about the big stakes and destruction in a series' third film. While he's talking specifically about the destruction of Asgard in Thor: Ragnarok, this can likely also be read as a hint of what's to come in Infinity War, what with it being the third Avengers film...

And I had never even thought out of this until right now, but maybe that is a trope that we… I had never thought of this before, but what do we do in Iron Man Three? Blow up Tony’s house, blow up all of his suits. What did we do in Captain America 3? Shatter the Avengers, shatter his relationships with Tony Stark and half of the characters that have become his present day foundation.

So now you can never do that again.

In every part three, we can. And we’ve blown up Asgard in this! Oh my god, we’re one-trick ponies. Oh my god… Search what happens in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Oh, I’m aware.

They blow up the Enterprise.

They do.

That’s where we got it.

That works though, in that movie, because it’s the only movie where they act selfishly. So they pay for it.

Because the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many?

If nothing else, I think that Feige is getting us ready to say goodbye to a lot of stuff that's been around the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a long time, and not just characters, but locations, weapons, and all kinds of other things with which the audience has formed a bond. It's getting pretty exciting to think that we're a little more than a month away from the carnage that will be Avengers: Infinity War!