The huge success of Deadpool & Wolverine feels like a turning point for the MCU after some disappointing recent releases. Some of that supposed dip after Avengers: Endgame has been exaggerated, considering the actual quality of the releases, and it's important to acknowledge that success breeds higher expectations. In Deadpool & Wolverine's case, it's a different kind of expectation that I fear could break the MCU. We need to talk about spoilers.
Custom image by Simon Gallagher
There are positive challenges for all future Marvel movies releasing in the wake of Deadpool & Wolverine, of course. The reinvigoration of the MCU box office sets standards (and expectations) higher, and the pressure to bring back both title characters will surely be heightened now. And that's without mentioning Wesley Snipes' Blade, Channing Tatum's Gambit, Dafne Keen's X-23, and Jennifer Garner's Elektra. But Deadpool & Wolverine also set a precedent Marvel will have to kill quickly.
Deadpool & Wolverine's Marketing Went Way Too Far
Marvel Spoiled Its Own Movie... But You Have To Admit It Worked
Spoilers are a tricky subject in cinema. Some are actively embraced in a carefully considered strategy to give just enough of a taster to tempt increasingly reluctant audiences into theaters, but at the same time, a culture has risen out of that that threatens the magic of the cinematic experience. Deadpool & Wolverine, frustratingly, crossed that event horizon in a way that I fear will set a precedent for future MCU releases.
Almost every major cameo and significant parts of the actual story - including the entire first 35 minutes of the movie - were laid out before anyone had even sat down for a paid screening. In a worrying shift, that wasn't just because of the nature of media commentary, or because some early viewers were going rogue: it was an active part of the marketing campaign. Deadpool & Wolverine's trailers and teasers spoiled cameos for the sake of hype, and fan and media screenings spoiled huge details like Henry Cavill's Wolverine cameo.
It was a remarkable strategy that actively worked, if you look at the box office numbers, so fair play to them. But when you see the director of a movie reposting screen recordings of his own movie on X as an active part of the early post-release marketing, it's hard not to wonder if things haven't got a little out of hand. And the bigger worry is that a big part of the audience wants this to be the norm.
Avengers: Doomsday & Secret Wars Are Likely To Have Incredibly Valuable Spoilers
As Avengers Movies Get Bigger, Their Spoilers Are Worth More
The worry now is that you simply can't put that genie back in the bottle. And in both Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, Marvel has two upcoming projects that are already being talked about in terms of their potential fan-rewarding moments and cameos. It is not at all a bad thing that they could give us more of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, or Deadpool meeting the Avengers, or Tobey Maguire's return as Spider-Man, or any number of exciting flashpoints, but we don't need to know them all.
Naturally, some spoilers are valuable in marketing terms: there is a universe out there in which Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom wouldn't be revealed until he appears on screen. But in reality, his personal brand is such a draw that weaponizing it for the purposes of The Fantastic Four: First Steps is very hard to argue against. Do I want to know any other Tier A cameos or surprises? No. I'd rather preserve the magic of the experience.
I want to be lied to, if I must be
Spoiler discussions after release are fair game for those who actively seek them out, of course, but for them to be all over the marketing, as they were for Deadpool & Wolverine is too much. Sadly, I can't see how Marvel won't look at how well that worked for Shawn Levy's sequel and adopt the same strategy. But I want to be lied to, if I must be: I want more of Andrew Garfield evading direct questions about his part in Spider-Man: No Way Home; I want more digitally altered trailers hiding secrets; I want to experience them for the first time in cinemas.
The problem, of course, is that I also want to be part of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars' hype train. I will lose my mind over the first trailers, and gleefully accept every morsel of what the confirmed cast say. But I don't want to know in advance that we'll see Hulk fight Wolverine, or the Council of Reeds appearing, or whatever part the X-Men will play. Clipping out the best story fragments in trailers used to be a cardinal sin: it can't be how everything is marketed.
Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame Were Great Because They Were Spoiler Protected
The Magic Of Cinema Worked Exactly As It Should Have
Thinking back to the run up to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame's releases, it felt like Marvel was at war with spoiler culture. When Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland spilled details, it was outrageous. When Frank Grillo confirmed Crossbones would return in Endgame, he then quickly said it was all just a joke, presumably as a course correction. Some spoilers, inevitably, still got out, but we all went into those movies gloriously unaware of some of the best parts.
Marvel could have told everyone that all of Thanos' victims in Infinity War's ending would return, knowing how much easy hype that would have gained them. They could have spoiled the cameos, or Captain America wielding Mjolnir, or Thor's transformation, but they didn't. Instead, we got trailers like this:
Yes, the Smart Hulk and Ronin story elements were shown in the official marketing, but the lengths Marvel went to protect spoilers became a marketing story in itself. The magic of seeing those movies in theaters without the biggest moments being known first was also just as much a part of why they did so well and are so beloved. You don't remember Endgame's portal scene just for what it shows, you remember it for how you felt watching it, in context in the dark.
Leak And Scoop Culture Is A Dangerous Balancing Act
Time To Admit It: We've Reached A Dangerous Point In Fan Culture
Sadly, cinema culture now is facing an impossible struggle. Prices are too high, audience etiquette is in the gutter, and studios are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to get people into the cinema. Some of them aren't even necessary (like spoiling X-23's involvement wasn't), and they feel like they're catering to a group who view knowing things first as a currency far greater than actually seeing them play out on screen.
Part of that exchange is the rise of the Internet Scooper, the arch-nemesis of studio secret keepers and anyone who doesn't want every fine detail of a movie spoiled weeks or months in advance. This is, too, a hierarchical system. At the top sit the true scoopers with actual industry insight, who verify their information, and give studios a chance to respond. Then in the middle are people who may have some legitimate contacts, but who cosplay as the top level. And at the bottom of the wide base of the pyramid are the bullsh*t artists who feed on fan excitement cynically.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are both going to be like Christmas in Scoopsville
Studios have to acknowledge their part in this culture, because the organic shift in marketing that saw influencer voices embraced led to what we're seeing now. If a trade reporting on a poorly-kept secret (like Jennifer Garner's Elektra return, which leaked a year in advance) is the acceptable Dr Jekyl of the hype train, whose wheels are greased by corporate strategy, Mr Hyde is the myriad scooper accounts who blasted rumor after speculative rumor at the eager social audience with a blunderbuss.
And legitimacy and track records don't matter, because it's all a big Human Centipede of self-congratulation either way. The earlier you spread leaks from a property everyone is excited about, the bigger safety net you establish to be able to say "well, this was just an early plan, and those plans changed." Look to the Marvel "scoopers" doing it already, they're saying a variation of exactly this.
I fear it's already inevitable: Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are both going to be like Christmas in Scoopsville. The barrage of faux insider information, which has already started before either of those movies even have scripts is going to get insufferable very quickly. And it's horrifying to think that Deadpool & Wolverine's marketing approach has vindicated what they do.
