Fans of the "big screen experience," the folks over at Marvel Studios are big on secrets and down on spoilers. Unfortunately, though, movie-goers tend to be so excited for their films the special details still constantly find their way out to the public. It's a part of the blockbuster movie industry at this point, but that doesn't mean Avengers: Age of Ultron writer/director Joss Whedon isn't still disappointed whenever it happens.
In the wake of the spoiler-filled comments recently made by Idris Elba about the upcoming Marvel Studios film, Vulture caught up with the Avengers 2 director and picked up his thoughts about both the specific incident as well as his personal thoughts on the leaking of spoiler information in general. Asked if he had been in contact with Elba since the leak, Whedon said that if he were to send an email it would contain an "attitude of scold," and followed that comment up by noting that spoilers finding their way out to the public are both expected and still disappointing at this point. Said the filmmaker,
"Yeah, when you have a cast of 19,000 people, inevitably, once every month, you pick up [a story] and you're like, 'Awww.'"
At this point, spoilers have somewhat become a double-edged sword in blockbuster movie-making. It is terrible when the big third act plot twist finds its way to audiences months if not years before the movie is set to come out, helping to suck a good deal of the suspense out of the narrative. At the same time, however, little tiny spoilers getting out provide a way for audiences to stay engaged with the film while they wait for new trailers, posters and stills to be released. True geeks love to speculate, imagining all of the possibilities in front of them, and small-but-concrete details help spark new ideas and concepts.
Fortunately, that benefit is something that Joss Whedon definitely understands, and even kind of encourages. Asked if he ever reads fan reactions and speculation, he said,
"Sometimes. Sometimes it's depressing, sometimes it's enlightening. Every now and then, you definitely learn something from some random person on the internet who sees your work in a way you didn't, who sees truth in it, that's worth it."
What will you be doing between now and the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron next summer? Will you be shutting yourself off from the movie world, hoping to learn as few possible details about the film as possible? Or will you be hunting down every quote from every actor in the movie between dissections of every frame in the trailer? Whatever you end up doing, just don't take it to the extreme and let it ruin the movie for yourself.
