10 Simple Ways To Build A Cinematic Universe

Nobody is in any doubt who calls the shots over at Marvel Studios. While the directors hired by the studio are allowed some measure of creative freedom, Kevin Feige is the man in charge. He's the man that knows how it all fits together, and has been since day one.

When it comes to the other cinematic universes in Hollywood, things aren't quite so clear.

Staying with Disney, the reports from the sets of Rogue One and the Han Solo spin-off only confirmed what many had already suspected; Kathleen Kennedy is running the show, and the filmmakers answer to her.

Zack Snyder was the driving force behind the DCEU, but Geoff Johns and John Berg have since taken charge of the film division. While they still aim to be more filmmaker-driven than the competition, a number of directors have nonetheless dropped out of various projects.

Akiva Goldsman was hired as head of the Transformers writers room, a position he no longer holds, but is also the founder of the Dark Universe. It seemed like Alex Kurtzman was the main creative mind, given how he talked up future projects during production on The Mummy but he now seems unsure of his role, probably because his movie was terrible.

On a franchise with so many moving parts, changes behind the scenes can often be detrimental to the process. Everybody needs to be pulling in the same direction to make things work, and several voices offering different opinions will often have to settle for compromise instead of unanimous agreement.