NetEase's Marvel Rivals accomplished the seemingly impossible by 'converting' none other than the son of Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and head creative of the incredibly lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe, to the Big M.
Speaking to The Wrap, Feige said that his son only 'feigned interest in a supportive way' in the movies and TV series and comics until he got his hands on the free-to-play hero shooter game. Afterward, he became interested in learning more about all those characters.
Suddenly, he was asking me to tell him more about Hela. Tell him more about The Punisher and these other characters. And then he started seeking them out in the shows.
Feige used this as an example of Marvel's struggles when winning over the newer generation. The president of Marvel Studios also underlined the success of the Disney Junior preschool TV series Spidey and His Amazing Friends, which also succeeded in bringing new fans to the superhero universe.
Kevin Feige's son is certainly not the only one whose attention was caught by Marvel Rivals. In February 2025, just two months after its debut, the game had already reached over 40 million players globally across the various platforms. The game recently kicked off its third season, featuring Phoenix and Blade as new playable characters.
With the imminent theatrical debut of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel Rivals is well-positioned to gain even greater interest. The Fantastic Four were already introduced in the game back in the first season, but NetEase is now adding new movie-inspired costumes, and even a brand new team-up ability featuring Human Torch (Johnny Storm) and The Thing (Ben Grimm), as shown below.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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