Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is aware of the review-bombing targeted at many of the franchise’s female-led films, and assures fans that the company places its cast and crew’s well-being as a top priority. As audience-based aggregate review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd become more popular in the age of the internet, ‘fans’ have devised new methods of letting their negative, often hurtful, and occasionally bigoted, sexist or even racist, opinions about movies and TV shows be known. Review-bombing is when a group of audience members rally together online to overwhelm such sites with negative reviews for a particular movie.

The Marvels 3.5/5 Release Date November 10, 2023 Director Nia DaCosta Writers Gene Colan , Roy Thomas Studio Marvel Studios Tagline Higher. Further. Faster. Together. Franchise Marvel Expand

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been the target of review-bombing on multiple occasions, but The Marvels suffered more than most. Even before the film had hit theaters, misogynistic audiences flooded Rotten Tomatoes with negative audience reviews, drastically affecting the film’s overall aggregate score. Speaking to Slash Film, Kevin Feige said that Marvel Studios has a support network for actors who are the target of such reviews, and believes the practice to be another negative byproduct of the growth of the internet. Feige said:

“I do think we are always there to support, and we always take things with a grain of salt. When things like that happen, I think that’s very clear. And as you just pointed out, when things like that are occurring, protecting the cast is the priority. But, I think social media can often be a toxic place, and if anybody has the cure to that, I’d love to be able to utilize it.”

Review Bombing has Become a Common Practice

The MCU is no stranger to review-bombing. Following the targeting of Captain Marvel in 2019, The Marvels, and the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law were both subject to review bombing from bigoted fans. It’s important to note that review-bombing doesn’t just mean leaving one bad review based on the quality of the final cut. Instead, these ‘fans’ will create multiple accounts on the given website/app and leave multiple negative, hateful, and occasionally slur-filled reviews targeted at the (often female) leading cast and creators. In several cases, it has been discovered that the audiences hadn’t even seen the movie they were reviewing – the ultimate sin in film journalism.

Related House of the Dragon Is Getting Review-Bombed for the Dumbest Reason House of Dragon has drawn the ire of many who are accusing one scene in the latest episode of pushing “the agenda.”

Can review-bombing affect a film’s box office performance? Yes. Are the majority of review bombers attacking a film because of a perceived political stance? Also, yes. Is review bombing completely pathetic? Absolutely.

The MCU isn’t the only Disney-owned franchise to be subject to bigoted review-bombing. The Star Wars franchise has seen multiple projects review-bombed by some fans over the last few years. Most recently, the Disney+ series The Acolyte became the latest target. While the genuine reviews place the series as a mediocre but occasionally exciting Star Wars story, according to the review bombers, The Acolyte was the worst thing to happen to Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks.