MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios

'The book every MCU fan needs to read' - Alan Sepinwall, co-author of The Sopranos Sessions


'A gift. Comprehensive, accessible, and entertaining' - Nicholas Quah, Vulture and New York Magazine


'Magnificent...hilarious, gripping, and emotional...I loved it three thousand' - Damon Lindelof

The unauthorized, behind-the-scenes story of the stunning rise - and suddenly uncertain reign - of the most transformative cultural phenomenon of our time.

Culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred original interviews - from studio head Kevin Feige to producers, directors, movie stars and writers - to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole, ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Spanning the early 1990s to the present, MCU relates many never-before-told stories, including the high-stakes Mar-a-Lago lunch where the idea of Marvel Studios was first pitched. It reveals that, for all its outward success, the studio was forged by near-constant conflict, from the contentious hiring of Robert Downey Jr. to the bitter, internecine battles with the so-called Creative Committee, to the disappointment of Quantumania and shocking departures of multiple Marvel executives in 2023.


Dishy and authoritative, MCU is the first book to tell the Marvel Studios story in full and an essential, effervescent account of American mass culture.