We’re talking, of course, about Scarlett Johansson’s attempt to sue Disney over lost income stemming from the release of “Black Widow” on Disney+. When news of the lawsuit came out in mid-2021, a Disney spokesperson criticized the actor’s “callous disregard” for the effects of the pandemic (via Deadline). While Kevin Feige hasn’t commented publicly on the litigation, which was later settled, he has said positive things about Bob Chapek since. “I think he is a creative guy, a nice guy, a real guy,” Feige told The Hollywood Reporter, noting that when viewing early cuts of films, the executive has “just enough of an opinion to give good feedback.”
Hopefully, this level of respect gives the two men some common ground to stand after media outlets began reporting that Chapek and Feige are at odds about a vision for Marvel’s future. One of Chapek’s missteps took place when he called “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” “an interesting experiment,” causing actor Simu Liu to fire back at him in a tweet (via Insider). Later in 2021, not after The Hollywood Reporter reported Feige’s words about Chapek, the YouTube account Overlord DVD quoted “a high-level source” in saying that Chapek was unhappy about “the whole wokeness thing” and said the two were basically battling it out over changes to the MCU meant to make it more inclusive. Time will tell which one prevails, if such a conflict actually exists.