Marvel fans have heard tell of Ike Perlmutter, Chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and know that he is rumored to be responsible for a lot of bad things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Mainly in that he prevented movies like Black Panther, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel from happening. But his attack on the MCU as we know it was worse than we might have thought. Or could have been if Bob Iger hadn't stepped in.
Iger sat down for an interview with CNBC (via Deadline) and talked about how Nelson Peltz and Perlmutter had a "curious dynamic" and that Peltz has now abandoned his push for a seat on the board at Marvel. Leaving his campaign behind, Peltz of Trian Group wanted to be on the board and was backed by Perlmutter's support. In an SEC filing, it was revealed that since July 2022, Peltz and/or Perlmutter pushed for Peltz to have a seat on the board "no less" than 20 times.
And in the midst of all this, it was revealed that Perlmutter, during his time on the board of Marvel, wanted President of Marvel Studio Kevin Feige fired. That wasn't going to work for Iger, who then moved that relevant part of Marvel out from under Perlmutter, which seems to have been the catalyst for wanting Peltz on the board.
“Our filings indicate that both Ike and Nelson were working together to try to encourage the board or convince the board to put Nelson on the board," Iger said. He went on to add:
"They have a relationship that dates back quite some time. We bought Marvel in 2009. I promised Ike the job that he would continue to run Marvel after that. Not forever, necessarily. But after that. And in 2015 he was intent on firing Kevin Feige who was running Marvel’s studio, the movie-making [operation] at the time, and I thought that was a mistake and stepped in to prevent that from happening. I think Kevin is an incredibly, incredibly talented executive that you know, the Marvel track record speaks for itself. And so I moved the movie-making operation of Marvel out from under Ike into the movie studio under Alan Horn."
When host David Faber asked if that created ill-will, Iger seemed to indicate that it did, but that he wasn't going to speculate on it. “You’d have to ask Ike about that. But let’s put it this way. He was not happy about it. And I think that unhappiness exists today. And you know, what the link is between that and Nelson, his relationship. I think that’s something that you can speculate about. I won’t.”