Entertainment Weekly - 10.2019

Kevin Feige
After conquering the box office with
Avengers: Endgame (now the top-grossing
film of all time), Marvel Studios president
Kevin Feige is coming for the small screen
with eight series in development for Dis-
ney+ (launching Nov. 12) that will expand
on the already impressive Marvel Cine-
matic Universe, spotlighting both new
heroes (Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk) and familiar
faces (Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Jeremy
Renner’s Hawkeye). “Up until this point,
we only had two or three release slots a
year, and there were so many characters
that we had ideas for,” says Feige, 46.
“We’ve been very lucky with 23 films to
do that. But now, with Disney+, we can
bring even more.” And thanks to Marvel’s
massive library of yet-to-be-adapted
superheroes (plus the recent Disney-Fox
merger, which gives Disney the rights
to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four), the
MCU will only keep growing. “We’ve had
Marvel Studios for about 12 years now,”
Feige says. “Every day it seems we sit
down and we [say], ‘What do we want to
do? What characters would be great to
bring to the screen?’ ” —DEVAN COGGAN

fall

tv pre

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2019

ROBIN THEDE

The revealing “Hertep”

sketch from HBO’s A Black

Lady Sketch Show displays

Robin Thede’s love for

the clever, the socially rel-

evant, and the ridiculous.

But it’s the writer-actress-

creator’s penchant for

unintentional trailblazing—

she was first black female

head writer for a late-

night series, The Nightly

Show With Larry Wilmore,

and ABLSS, which just got

picked up for season 2, is

the first sketch show made

for and by black women—

as well as her fierce dedi-

cation to sharing the

wealth as she rises to the

top, that proves Thede, 40,

is an effervescent talent

who’s just getting started.

—CLARKISHA KENT

JADA

PINKETT SMITH

Talk shows have been

a standard part of a well-

balanced TV diet since

the early 1950s, but Jada

Pinkett Smith has the

concept feeling new all

over again. Her refresh-

ingly candid Red Table

Talk—which the Girls Trip

star, 48, hosts with mom

Adrienne and daughter

Willow—boasts 6.4 million

Facebook followers (a stat

made more meaningful

because it airs on Face-

book Watch). More impor-

tant, it’s the streaming

service’s highest-profile

series to date, giving

FBW the cred it needs to

build on for future suc-

cess. —PATRICK GOMEZ

FRIENDS

HAS NEVER GONE

ON A BREAK.

THIS IS THE INSIDE

STORY OF HOW

IT ALL HAPPENED.

The One with

All the Memories