Some of Hollywood’s biggest names, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Sinners director Ryan Coogler and Deadpool &Wolverine filmmaker Shawn Levy have a simple strategy for dealing with the relentless noise of internet fandom: tune it out.
The group came together this week to offer a rare and candid look at what it really takes to make blockbuster films, and how not to lose your mind in the process.
The occasion was a celebration at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production was officially dedicated in the producer’s honour.
All three men are USC graduates, and the evening’s centrepiece was a frank conversation between them that touched on internet culture, test screening disasters and the messy, unglamorous reality of making great films.
Feige, widely regarded as the most successful movie producer of all time, was characteristically direct on the subject of online fandom.
Marvel has always had a close relationship with its audience, going back to the letters pages in its comics, but the internet has changed the nature of that relationship considerably.
“It can be wielded with such force now that you have to beware,” he said. The sheer volume of theories, opinions and hot takes across YouTube, TikTok and Reddit, he warned, is something filmmakers engage with at their peril.
“You can read everything on everything and get a different point of view on it. You can go crazy. So, we don’t do that.”
Levy echoed the sentiment, framing it as a matter of professional survival.
When you’re working on large-scale franchise projects, he is currently in post-production on the next Star Wars film, the ability to switch off becomes essential.
“You’ve gotta know when to put it down, go quiet, and go back to what you had in your head and in your voice when you began,” he said.
The conversation also turned to something filmmakers rarely discuss publicly: the gut-punch of a bad test screening.
Feige described the experience with striking honesty, noting that for Marvel, audience previews happen after major investment has already been made.
“It happens when you’ve already spent almost $200 million on a movie and you screen it for people and they’re like, ‘What was that?'” Levy didn’t shy away from what comes next.
“And then the panic sets in. You panic, feel like shit, and then you go back to work.”
What made the conversation particularly compelling was Feige’s admission that he spent years thinking Marvel was uniquely bad at getting films right the first time.
He has since learned otherwise.
He turned to Coogler mid-thought and asked whether Sinners, the most nominated film in Oscar history this year, was perfect from its first cut.
Coogler laughed. “No,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s perfect even now, bro.”
It was a disarmingly human moment from three filmmakers at the very top of their industry, a reminder that even the biggest films in the world are works in progress right up until the credits roll.
