Higher, further, faster, and finally, more diverse? Twenty-one films into its juggernaut franchise, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige says the company’s recent wave of superhero titles led by global hits “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” is only the start of a more inclusive Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“There will be many more announcements to come,” Feige told The Times ahead of the “Captain Marvel” release. “Put it this way: It’s only the beginning.”

Already making good on that promise as the female-fronted “Captain Marvel” crushed the box office in its worldwide debut, Marvel announced last week that Destin Daniel Cretton will helm the studio’s fast-tracked first Asian superhero installment, “Shang-Chi.” (Casting details are still to come.)

The franchise’s newfound dedication to inclusion, Feige said, owes much to the legacy of the late Stan Lee. The longtime Marvel creative, editor and publisher used his platform to pen his “Stan’s Soapbox” column on a variety of subjects including social and racial injustice.

“Let’s lay it right on the line,” Lee began one oft-quoted 1968 column. “Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” Feige expressed hope that fans will find a spirit kindred to Lee’s social consciousness in the films Marvel is making.

“We’re just the stewards, the current stewards, of these characters that he and his co-creators brought together — and all of them were created in that spirit of those ‘Soapboxes,’” Feige said. “That was very much what Stan’s worldview was, and that’s what these movies represent.”

Lee died in November at age 95 but has remained a constant presence in the MCU and beyond, appearing posthumously in December’s Oscar-winning animated Sony hit “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

A tribute celebrating Lee’s signature Marvel appearances opens the credits lead-in to “Captain Marvel,” in which a scene aboard a speeding train marks one of his final MCU cameos.

Led by Brie Larson, “Captain Marvel” has vanquished both the skeptics and the trolls, a feat to which Lee might have cheered, “Excelsior!” It is the first film in the MCU to be directed by a woman and scored $455 million globally in its opening weekend, the sixth-biggest launch of all time.

Last year, Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” ushered in this new era of the MCU with many firsts: the first Marvel film to center on a black superhero, the first to feature a predominantly black cast, the first to be directed by an African-American filmmaker. It made $1.3 billion globally and scored groundbreaking Oscar nominations for the studio, including best picture.

“Black Panther,” the trailblazing critical and commercial hit, remains a major feather in Marvel’s cap. Feige earned an Oscar nomination for producing “Black Panther” and said Marvel disregarded the long-prevailing misconception that black stars can’t travel internationally.

“People would ask, whether it was ‘Captain Marvel’ or more so last year before the release of ‘Black Panther,’ about the risk of an entirely African and African-American cast and how it would play around the world,” he said. “And we said, ‘No — we’re just going to try to make a great movie and put it out to the world.’”

“Diversity does make for better movies, especially with a U.S. population that is almost 40 percent minority,” wrote Ana-Christina Ramón, director of research and civic engagement for UCLA’s social sciences division and coauthor of UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report, in an email. “People of color are avid moviegoers and want to see themselves represented as heroes on the big screen.”

Even in this moment of celebrated progress, the MCU has miles yet to go. Some, like sociologist and author Nancy Wang Yuen, were disappointed in the limited screen time given to “Crazy Rich Asians” breakout Gemma Chan as Kree warrior Minn-Erva in “Captain Marvel.”

On the “Captain Marvel” red carpet, Marvel exec Victoria Alonso was bullish on LGBTQ representation in the MCU.

“The world is ready,” she told Variety — but noncommittal. With the future of the MCU heavily under wraps, rumors that “The Eternals” may include a gay lead character remain purely speculative.

Additionally, Ramón points out that while Marvel has made strides for representation in its comics, groups including Latino and Muslim characters “have had little to no representation in the Marvel Studios film universe.” However, she’s encouraged by the success of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” an animated film outside the MCU, which focused on the black and Latino character of Miles Morales.

“The next step from that animated film is to greenlight a live-action film with Latinx characters that are central to the story line,” Ramón said.

Perhaps Marvel can take a cue from the tagline echoed all over promo materials for its next spandexed bonanza, “Avengers: Endgame.” Whatever it takes.