Marvel’s Kevin Feige knows everybody wants a female-led superhero movie, still isn’t making one

One of the biggest criticisms that is usually lobbed at superhero movies—whether it’s DC, Marvel, or some third comic book company—is that they’re extremely man-centric. Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Talking Space Raccoon Man. They’re all men. Even Wonder Woman—the most famous female superhero ever—needs to pop up in Batman V. Superman before Warner Bros. and DC will consider giving her a solo movie. Scarlett Johannson’s Black Widow has been tearing stuff up in Marvel’s movies, and Squirrel Girl might be about to do something somewhere, but it’s still not enough. People want superhero movies starring female superheroes.

Luckily, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, is listening to everyone’s concerns. Speaking with Comic Book Resources, he says that he “very much” believes in doing a movie with a female lead, and that he doesn’t think it’s fair to cite female-led box office flops as reasons why they don’t work. After all, as he points out, The Hunger Games, Frozen, Divergent, Kill Bill, and Aliens all have a female lead.

As for when Marvel will get on the Hunger Games train and give Black Widow or the new Captain Marvel their own movies, Feige—who, once again, is the guy who literally has the power to make this happen—says he wants to do it “sooner rather than later.” Unfortunately, he explains that Marvel has put itself in such a position that it has “more franchises than most people,” and that it would have to set one aside “for three or four years” if it wanted to “introduce a new one.” In other words, Marvel isn’t making a female-led movie, it has no intention of making one any time soon, and also please stop asking about it. Feige describes these scheduling issues as “chess matches,” which is only an apt comparison if you picture Feige playing chess against himself. But at least he’s aware of the problem, so that means it has to get solved at some point, right? Right?