MCU boss Kevin Feige reveals Marvel Rivals finally made his son a fan of Marvel after years of trying

NetEase’s Marvel Rivals quickly became one of the biggest free-to-play games ever when it launched last year, and rapid updates have only kept it at the top. While the game has seen its player count dwindle slightly, the superhero hero shooter is still massively popular and, for Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, it’s done the impossible.

Marvel Rivals got Kevin Feige’s son into Marvel

Feige, the architect of the MCU, has been working on movies based on the comic book universe since the original X-Men over 25-years ago. Despite running the world’s biggest entertainment brand, the MCU lead revealed that he simply couldn’t get his teenage son into Marvel, but NetEase’s game finally did.

Via The Wrap, Feige revealed that his son only “feigned interest in a supportive way”, but everything changed when he got hooked on NetEase’s free-to-play game last year.

“Suddenly, he was asking me to tell him more about Hela,” the Marvel Studios boss revealed. “Tell him more about The Punisher and these other characters. And then he started seeking them out in the shows.”

The Marvel boss explained that the MCU cannot bring everything into the Marvel Universe in the same way that comic books couldn’t. However, the multiplayer game is an example of how malleable the universe and its characters are and proves that new interpretations of these characters for new audiences is always important to a brand’s longevity.

Outside of Marvel Rivals, Feige used Spider-Man as an example which launched an animated kids show near the same time as the release of No Way Home.

“In 2021, on Spidey and His Amazing Friends, the Green Goblin was making evil snowmen who were throwing snowballs at Spider-Man,” the Marvel boss said. “At the same time, on the big screen, he’s killing Aunt May.”

This doesn’t mean every adaptation is successful, but it’s always a new shot as bringing a new audience into the fold. For example, the Guardians of the Galaxy comics were never a big run, but those characters became beloved after the release of James Gunn’s movie, and the video game that released later was another great entry point into that group.

For more Rivals news, read about just how broken Blade appears to be or the latest controversial ban wave that’s hit the free-to-play game. For a fun one, read about how comic book writers also hate Galacta, not just us.