But this content is not enough for the deepest part of the fanbase. If you really want to live on the cutting edge of the Marvel Universe, you need to know your rumors.
Over the past few years, an industry of sorts has grown up around a sprawling network of websites and social media accounts vying for the latest news, whether it’s that Aubrey Plaza might play the diabolical villain Mephisto in an upcoming film or that vampires might attack. Captain America or an evil version of Mister Fantastic could start destroying worlds.
Very few of them turn out to be true, but rumors that come true can set off a chain reaction with dramatic consequences for the Marvel Cinematic Universe that dominates modern Hollywood. So fans study each report like Doctor Strange peering into the Time Stone, trying to discern signs of where Marvel’s epic story will go next.
Some rumor mongers even make decent money from it and have reportedly gone so far as to illegally fly drones over product shipments to gather information. Marvel takes this phenomenon so seriously that it has filed a federal case based on the leaks.
lLast year, a rumor circulated on social media that Doctor Doom would appear in the post-credits scene of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was one of countless claims of dubious origin that emerged from fan accounts with names like @MyTimeToShineHello and @CanWeGetSomeToast. But this one was so loaded with subtext that it went as far as “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
You see, Doom is a mad scientist who has tormented superheroes in comics for half a century but has yet to debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, the extended term for the interconnected and highly profitable series of films and TV shows produced by Marvel. Studios started in 2008 with Iron Man.
In Marvel history, almost everything that happens off-screen and on-screen takes place in a parallel reality known as Earth-199999. (Or perhaps Earth-616; fan debate on that would fill the paper if we looked into it.) So if Doom had appeared in even a few shots in Wakanda Forever, as many fans were convinced, he would inevitably do this in order for the MCU to do what it had already done to parallel timelines in the comics: invade Black Panther’s country of Wakanda, and ultimately try to destroy all superheroes in his timeline. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine: Half of Hollywood’s celebrities could soon be fighting for their lives in a movie theater near you.
Purported concept art for Doom’s cameo has been trending on Reddit and Twitter (now X) as theories have deepened. At one point, Howard Stern offered to voice the character. Influential YouTube channel GeekyCast said the “very powerful” version of Doom is “99% confirmed.”
“Doctor Doom at the end of the movie?” Kimmel asked Black Panther stars Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o and Letitia Wright when they came to the comedian’s late-night show last October. “I have heard from very reliable sources, and this may be news to you too, that Doctor Doom will be played by Adam Sandler.”
The Sandler thing was a joke. That’s the whole rumor, as it turned out. “Wakanda Forever” premiered on October 26 with a mention of Doom. Fans were disappointed, but soon turned to the next unconfirmed report: that Doom might appear in the next Avengers movie.
“It’s just something we’re totally into these days,” said Jeff Snyder. freelance reporter who posts Marvel news on his podcast “The Hot Mic,” and for his roughly 43,000 followers @TheInSneider, his Among Snyder’s victories is the accurate report that Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin will appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
More significant rumors may come from agents, publicists, managers, studio executives or simply “people in the know,” Snyder said. Some blogs also get their hands on the casting sheets that are used by agencies to track open positions throughout Hollywood.
A common source is “a low-level person in the city in their 20s whose job is to gather information,” Snyder said. “And these are the people you need to get to know. They are not the most powerful, although in this city information is power to some extent.
Of course, many rumors turn out to be fictitious. Unlike the journalistic institutions for which Snyder wrote, sites that spread rumors face little liability, he said. Anything the blog throws out into the ether will likely be shared and devoured by fans. If it turns out to be wrong, move on to the next one.
“If I were a fan of all this, I would want to see the new movie and just enjoy it,” Snyder said. “But I also understand the downside. … When there’s a demand, there are people who are going to meet it.”
The demand takes the form of people like Brandon Matthews, a Bay Area Marvel fan since age 5 who follows the latest rumors daily, sometimes hourly.
Matthews kept track of them all in his head, but he said the volume of rumors has increased dramatically during the pandemic thanks to fans who have “endless time on their hands.” Maintaining the pace became a headache. “There will be a lot of rumors about the release that will have conflicting storylines,” he said.
Matthews now tracks the reports in a multi-tabbed spreadsheet that ranks each new rumor by credibility on a scale of 10 (a relatively obscure report that Linda Cardellini will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). which actually turned out to be true) to 1 (an excellent Deadline story starring Will Poulter as Adam Warlock).
Marvel, which has not responded to multiple requests for comment, has an entire security team dedicated to preventing scripts and plot details from leaking. The meme of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige with a sniper rifle aimed at whistleblowers exists for a reason.
Marvel stars Holland and Mark Ruffalo have remained silent in recent interviews after accidentally spoiling plot details in the past. Holland once blurted out on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that Spider-Man will go into space, and Ruffalo let slip on Good Morning America that everyone dies in Infinity War.
Samuel L. Jackson told Entertainment Weekly that Marvel has such strict security measures that they disable drones that try to fly over production lots. He said someone stole a watermarked version of his 2012 “Avengers” script and staged a sham purchase to get it back.
And when the script for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was leaked on a Marvel spoiler Reddit page in January, Marvel went to federal court to try to identify those who leaked the story, according to the Wall Street Journal. The legal situation is still unresolved, but the Reddit page was taken down due to the scandal, although it has since been revived.
MArvel’s rumor industry is the culmination of a phenomenon at least as old as Hollywood.
In the early 20th century, film magazines published columns detailing what went on behind the scenes, says Kendall Phillips, a communications professor at Syracuse University and host of the podcast “Pop Life.” “And as the studio system grew, film journalism grew with it,” he said.
Movie reviewers like gossip writer Hedda Hopper often included people working on the film or TV show watching dailies or talking to people on set, Phillips said.
In the 1930s, the Washington Post published a section called “Straight from the Studio,” which may seem to modern generations as breathless and opaque as today’s Marvel mill will likely someday become. “Despite rumors to the contrary, Paul Lucas will become Philo Vance in ‘Casino Murder Case,’” the January 1935 column read. “He was chosen when it was determined that William Powell was unable to take on the role.”
According to Joanna Robinson, co-author of MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, the leak industry transitioned to “geek culture” around the same time the MCU evolved from a niche commodity to the juggernaut it is today.
Because of this, “Marvel has always had a symbiotic relationship with the computer press,” Robinson said.
Marvel’s rise in Hollywood has created an appetite for superhero news, so behind-the-scenes details about the studio’s plans have become more common – such as how Emily Blunt was set to debut as Captain Marvel in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was not published. It will not happen. As Marvel has released more films, more rumors have surfaced in the blogosphere and sometimes a major scoop has emerged, such as when studio photos from Avengers: Endgame surfaced online showing Captain America in his old 2012 costume. , which alerted fans to the inclusion of time travel in the film.
Cast and plot leaks skyrocketed around the time Game of Thrones debuted on HBO. This fantasy franchise and the MCU are based on the source material, which makes casting calls more interesting, Robinson said. People wanted to know if an undead Lady Stoneheart would appear in Game of Thrones or if Jon Snow would find out the true identity of his parents.
“It’s been really interesting to see how this has gone from being sort of a niche, relatively Hollywood thing to being part of the zeitgeist,” said Josh Lucas, owner of Den of Nerds, a YouTube channel that posts Marvel and Star Wars news and rumors. ” .
Rumor mongers The Post didn’t provide details on their income, but Lucas said he knows YouTube creators who make six figures making videos about Marvel leaks and theories.
Speed is of the essence here. The rumor mill moves so fast that bloggers and webcasters are incentivized to jump on any message they come across as quickly as possible. Such was the case when rumors began to circulate that actress Mila Kunis would play Sue Storm in an upcoming film.
Kunis denied these theories in an interview with James Corden on The Late Late Show in late April. She said she wouldn’t be in the reboot, but rumors only started because she was seen having lunch with the director.
“Obviously, if you go to lunch with someone who works in this industry, you start working together using the Internet,” she said.
Soon, another rumor surfaced claiming that Kunis was going to play a female version of the Thing. A legion of YouTube videos soon followed. The rumor remains unconfirmed.