According to showrunner Jessica Gao, Feige was “very supportive” of this twist, and in fact, the meta finale was partially his idea. “Kevin was the one who said, ‘There’s no reason to do a big Marvel ending. This is not a Marvel movie. You’ve made a show that’s completely different than anything we’ve ever done before, so there’s absolutely no reason to treat it like a typical Marvel movie. Do the thing that this was always going to be.’” Gao recalls in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And that was so freeing and inspirational. That’s really what got wheels turning about going really out of the box and doing something that was more true to this show, as opposed to what’s true to a typical Marvel project.”
Once K.E.V.I.N. the robot was on the table, “[Feige] was all for it, and that scene is very much reflective of the relationship that I have with him. A lot of the conversation in that scene is taken from conversations that I’ve had with him,” Gao shares. The only thing the duo butted heads over was whether or not the robot should wear Feige’s signature baseball hat, something Gao was so passionately in favor of she jokingly threatened to quit over it. (“And then there was a split second pause, and he just went, ‘Thank you very much, Jessica. You’ve done some great work for us, and we really appreciate everything.’”) Luckily, visual development supervisor Jackson Sze was able to design a compromise.
Even with Feige’s full support, Gao is still “surprised I got away with most of that conversation” between Jen (Tatiana Maslany) and K.E.V.I.N. “[But] that’s the great thing about Kevin,” she says. “He likes to have fun, and he has a good sense of humor, both about himself and about Marvel. And just in general.”
In her own THR interview, Maslany said she wasn’t surprised about her boss’ reaction at all: “[Because] knowing Kevin Feige, he just has a creative mischief about him and a curiosity about things. And as a creative, it makes sense to me that he would be up for it.” Plus, a little light teasing isn’t going to hurt the bottom line, she noted. “Marvel is doing alright; they’re going to be fine. (Laughs.) It’s not like they’re struggling to get people to embrace their stories. They’re pretty well loved.” Fair enough!
