'Ms Marvel' Star Reveals That Marvel Studios Plant Fake Leaks To Throw Fans Off Spoilers
"[They] literally planted that! [And I] now have so much respect for Marvels security team."
By Wayne Garreth — 20 Jul 2022, 11:23 AM
Rising to stardom, Iman Vellani has garnered lots of attention for her role as Kamala Khan, Marvel's first Muslim superhero character in the series Ms Marvel (2022)
Embracing her character's inherent cooky and sometimes misunderstood characteristics, Vellani has received tonnes of praise for her role as the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero.
Just one day after the premiere of the final episode of season one's Ms Marvel (2022), Vellani hopped on for a momentary Reddit AMA (known as a subreddit for question-and-answer interactive interviews) to answer some burning fan questions.
While most of the questions posed were wholesome, varying from Vellani's first time seeing the Ms Marvel suit, to the hardest scene she had to film for the entire series, one particular fan question set Reddit on fire, with fans finally concluding what some have speculated for years and years.
One question posed by user 'imanvellanistan', asked if Vellani had ever been a member of the subreddit group, Marvel Studios Spoilers
Known formally on the website as r/MarvelStudioSpoilers, the subreddit was dedicated to an online community that speculate and share spoilers relating to any upcoming Marvel production, be it movies or series.
When answering the question, Vellani noted (among other things) that she considered the subreddit group to be her second home, but left the platform during the period of time surrounding Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Her reason for leaving however, was altogether surprising:
Sending shockwaves down fans' spines, it seemed as though Vellani copped to a tactic carried out by the security team at Marvel, to release and perpetuate a narrative of false spoilers related to the movie.
First introduced in Captain America: Civil War (2016), BARF was considered one of Tony Stark's most prestigious technological creations
Standing for Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, BARF is a form of holographic illusion technology that was created by Quentin Beck (who eventually came to be known as Mysterio) for Stark Industries.
In Captain America: Civil War (2016), the item was not released to the public due to Tony's personal choice to keep it for therapeutic purposes. However, it emerged once again in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). Beck, who was fired by Tony for his unstable nature when working as a holographic-illusions specialist for Stark Industries, sought to take BARF back from Peter Parker after it was given to him when Tony died.
While those who watched Far From Home (2019) know that Mysterio's path came to a conclusive end during the course of the movie, it did not prevent him from creating feigned holographic illusions to formulate a global crisis.
Screen grab in 'Far From Home (2019)' where Mysterio successfully tricks Peter using BARF.
Image via MCU WikiCarrying backwards to the events of Endgame (2019) however, a set photo was dropped on Reddit prior to the release of the movie, depicting the apparent usage of BARF by crew in the process of filming.
At the time, many fans speculated that BARF would reappear in Endgame (2019) as a tool to take down Thanos in his quest to erase half of the universe from existence. Eventually, BARF's lack of appearance in the film caused quite a stir at the time, with many fans wondering how, or where, the technological tool would pop up.
After Vellani's answer on the subreddit post a few days ago however, it's safe to say that the three-year mystery can finally be put to rest, as her statement conclusively reveals the photo to have been an active attempt by Marvel Studios to spread disinformation as to the plot of the film.
While some fans are left in utter disbelief, others are unsurprised, due to the high financial stakes that were involved in producing Endgame (2019)
American filmmaker and comic book writer, Kevin Smith, claimed that Marvel has a 'secret police' team on the set of every production. Their job is relatively simple, root out leakers and occasionally engage in putting out false information, to throw off over-ambitious fans who seek to decode shows that've yet to be released.
This hardly seems like such a surprise given other leaks that have happened in the past, including Tom Holland's accidental reveal of the Infinity War (2018) poster on an Instagram Live, and Andrew Garfield's bad game of cat-and-mouse with the press as to his appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
In response to Vellani's reveal, one fan was thoroughly impressed by the studios efforts to prevent spoilers.
One of the moderators of the Marvel Studios Spoilers subreddit group even invited Vellani to do another question-and-answer AMA with them.
Whichever way one looks at the situation, fans can thank Iman Vellani for giving us a small glimpse into what to expect from future Marvel 'spoilers'
