Kevin Feige Says It’s Getting Harder to Keep Marvel’s Secrets

It’s getting harder and harder for the folks at Marvel Studios to keep the franchise’s biggest secrets, at least according to studio president Kevin Feige. Most films and TV shows in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are filled with big reveals and spoilers. That’s especially true of recent efforts like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This means that unexpected actors are showing up on sets more often and fans are finding out more information than they may want to know ahead of a Marvel movie’s debut.

During the press conference for the new Doctor Strange sequel, Feige was asked about keeping spoilers and secrets out of the public eye until the films come out. Feige responded by saying that, unfortunately, it’s impossible at this point. Something is going to probably leak at some point. So the goal for Marvel Studios is to make movies that are great even if fans may know some of the big surprises.

“The unfortunate truth is you don’t, and therefore you need to make sure that the experience itself works, regardless of what has been spoiled or not,” Feige explained. “We still do as good a job as we can and I think a lot of people are getting good at not spreading it. You know somebody steals something, don’t spread it around because it just potentially lessens the experience, but in a lot of ways, No Way Home showed that it did not lessen the experience, so we will continue to do the best we can, but the most important thing is delivering the movie or the show that delivers regardless of what you know going in.”

As Feige mentioned, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a great example of building something that can be widely loved even if its biggest secrets are revealed ahead of time. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were spotted on the set of No Way Home during its production. Despite Garfield’s extensive and convincing fibs, fans knew that the previous Spider-Man stars would be in No Way Home. But that didn’t take away from the experience of the film.

Going forward, Marvel will need to keep relying heavily on story and character development more than big surprises and exciting reveals. Fortunately, that has been the goal for the studio.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on Friday.