Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, Star Trek fans communicated their thoughts on the series with fan-made zines, distributed through snail mail across the country. In the late ‘70s and into the ‘80s, Star Wars fans did the same. But when the internet came around, the fan experience was completely changed: suddenly, you could share your opinion about the brand-new Harry Potter book or Peter Jackson’s take on The Lord of the Rings on your LiveJournal or MySpace for thousands to see instantly. To quote Ben Affleck in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: “The internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to b*tch about movies and share pornography with one another.”
Now, in 2024, franchises are huge, and fandoms are even bigger. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a behemoth of superhero movies and has the following to match, but along with that fandom comes a demanding audience. A new report claims studios are taking unprecedented steps to avoid the ire of the fandoms — at any cost. But in catering to fans, major movie studios like Marvel may be shooting themselves in the foot in more ways than one.
