Best Moments in Fandom 2024

2024 is in the books – and what a year it was. While there were some big failures in various fandoms, there were also a lot of signs of hope. The fandoms that makeup pop culture were taken on quite a ride, with some huge moments sticking out to make 2024 one of the more memorable years in recent memories.

The best moments in fandom shone brightly in 2024. These moments redefined their respective fandoms, grabbing some that were in the mud and cleaning them off for a sparkling tomorrow. 2025 is going to be an epic year, and some big reasons for that can be found in the best fandom moments of 2024.

The Avengers: Doomsday/Secret Wars Reveal

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on something of a downswing in the last few years, but 2024 changed all of that. Fans are excited again for the first time in ages and a big reason for that came from San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel was back in Hall H, and they made an announcement that set the Internet on fire – not only would Captain America: Winter Soldier/Captain America: Civil War/Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame directors the Russo Brothers return to direct the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday/Secret Wars, but Robert Downey Jr. would take up the role of Doctor Doom in the movie.

The announcement was hype personified and it was all anyone could talk about for days. The Russos and RDJ were huge parts of the MCU’s prior success – arguably they are the best directors and the best actor/character in the MCU’s history. Having them come back for the next Avengers film took movies that fans weren’t that excited about and shot their expectations into the stratosphere. However, Marvel wasn’t done with their announcements for the next Avengers duology – Chris Evans is also going to return for Doomsday/Secret Wars.

2024 was a banner year for Marvel Studios, but there was another moment in July that would remind everyone that Marvel is still the biggest name in fandom, one that would show the future of the MCU…

Deadpool & Wolverine’s Massive Success

Everyone knew that Deadpool & Wolverine was going to be successful, but it’s doubtful that anyone figured it would be as massive as it was. Deadpool & Wolverine made over a billion dollars, and it impressed fans and critics alike. While the MCU was nowhere near dead, it had been in a funk for several years, with movies and TV series showing diminishing returns. 2023’s The Marvels was Marvel Studios’ first bomb and they needed something massive to show fans that things weren’t going down the tubes. That was Deadpool & Wolverine.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the best multiverse project that Marvel has put out, bringing back characters from previous Marvel movies like Jennifer Garner’s Elektra, Chris Evans’s Human Torch, Aaron Stanford’s Pyro, Dafne Keen’s X-23, and Wesley Snipes’s Blade – it even gave fans a taste of Channing Tatum’s Gambit. Most importantly, it brought back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, getting the longest-tenured superhero actor back to the game.

Everyone knew that Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool would be like Reese’s Cups – two great tastes that taste great together – but Deadpool & Wolverine was better than everyone expected. It gave MCU fans, Fox X-Men fans, and anyone who liked superheroes a great story and succeeded in every way. It showed that Marvel Studios could still put out amazing projects, giving hope that Fantastic Four: First Steps, the upcoming Avengers movies, and the still-just-over-the-horizon X-Men films would be as great as what came before.

Wicked Made Everyone a Theater Kid

Author Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West in 1995. It was the first in a series of books Maguire wrote about the villains of classic fairy tales and would be his most successful. Maguire wrote sequels to Wicked, all of which became bestsellers, but the story truly entered the zeitgeist with its Broadway debut on October 30, 2003. Wicked became a sensation, becoming Broadway’s hottest ticket before touring the country.

Big-screen Broadway adaptations aren’t exactly common, but Wicked became enough of a phenomenon to warrant one. Pop star Ariana Grande was cast as Glinda the Good Witch and Cynthia Erivo got the nod as Elphaba, the titular Wicked Witch. The two went on a media tour together and showed off the kind of relationship that shows they built a connection working on the movie, which is usually a good sign. People were excited about the movie and luckily, Wicked delivered.

Wicked is the kind of movie that (nearly) everyone enjoyed, which is a rarity. For two and a half hours, everyone in whatever theater Wicked is playing becomes a theater kid, which is quite an accomplishment. What makes the movie so great is not only the quality of it as an adaptation or the great songs or the work the crew put into the film, but the love that everyone involved had for Wicked and each other. Wicked has gone from a beloved book to a Broadway phenomenon to a pop-cultural cinematic event. Talk about “defying gravity.”

Related: Wicked Star Cynthia Erivo Reveals She Co-Wrote Original Song for Sequel

Marvel Rivals Made A Near-Perfect Hero Shooter

The summer of 2024 saw fans get their hands on the beta for Marvel Rivals, a third-person hero shooter that starred the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe. The beta showed off a good portion of the roster and the gameplay, enough to make players excited for the full edition of the game. After the beta ended, NetEase Games started to release videos with the rest of the roster, building anticipation until almost the last moment before the game’s full release.

Marvel Rivals was released on December 6, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and XBox Series X/S, and it blew players away. Up until this point, hero shooters were defined by Overwatch, but Marvel Rivals has taken that crown. The art style is unforgettable, and the fact that it took this long for a hero shooter based on Marvel feels like a travesty after seeing just how great Marvel Rivals plays. NetEase was able to pull it off, with the Steam version of the game hosting an average of 400,000 players a night. Streamers have embraced the game as well, and there are reports that Marvel Rivals has cut Overwatch‘s player base in half.

Marvel Rivals has an insane amount of hype behind it, with players waiting breathlessly for updates. Marvel Rivals was always going to be successful, but no one could have guessed it would have become this big. The game is the perfect hero shooter for the moment, and it can only go up from here.

Superman ‘s Trailer Broke the Internet

In October 2022, it was announced that writer/director James Gunn, of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad, and Peacemaker fame, and producer Peter Safran would become the heads of a new DC Studios. A slate of movies, called “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters” were released, but the biggest news was that Gunn was going to write and direct the next Superman movie, which was then called Superman: Legacy, and it would be the first film in the new DCU. The movie was slated for July 2025, and the hype train left the station.

2023 and 2024 would see more information released about the movie, with the title being changed to Superman. The hype built and built, until December 2024 saw a poster and the teaser trailer released. Fans had been burnt by DC and Superman movies before, so a lot was riding on the new trailer. It was a make-or-break moment.

And the trailer killed it.

Superman’s trailer showed off a variety of characters and events, exciting longtime DC readers, but what truly made the trailer work was the feel. The whole thing felt like a Superman project should feel. Gunn captured the hope at the core of the character and put it onscreen. Superman‘s teaser trailer made fans even more hyped. It was heavily discussed for days, with everyone having an opinion on it. It truly broke the Internet and showed that maybe DC movies would finally reach the levels that Marvel ones had.