Chinese Marvel fans enraged over botched Avengers: Infinity War event in Shanghai

Calls on Weibo demand an apology from Marvel China

Despite the upbeat press photos, Marvel’s fan event for Avengers: Infinity War at Shanghai Disneyland yesterday was a complete and total disaster, according to almost anyone who attended the event. Chinese social media is on fire today, demanding an apology from event organizers and lamenting the embarrassment they felt in front of their idols from the film.

While the list of complaints runs long and includes things like poor red carpet organization and lack of crowd control, the crux of the issue appears to be an attempt to pack the ticket with unnecessary Chinese talent. Organizers brought in a slew of singers and celebrities who clearly had little interest in or knowledge of the Avengers. Chinese fans who had waited hours, many of them camping out overnight at Disneyland, were subjected to performances by Chinese stars “who had nothing to do with Marvel” such as Zhang Jie, Joey Yung, and Jane Zhang.

Actors Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, and Mark Ruffalo and directors Anthony and Joe Russo stood politely to the side of the stage and clapped for much of the event. At one point, fans noticed visible signs of annoyance from Robert Downey Jr. at being pushed to the side on multiple occasions.

The stars of the Avengers can be seen here on the right, clapping.

The crowning moment of horror came in a speech given by Eason Chan in which he said something to the effect of “What do we call them? Superman? Oh, superheroes. Whatever.” (“他们叫什么人呐？超人吗？哦超级英雄 superhero, whatever.”)

Many irate attendees were clearly huge Robert Downey Jr fans, and a lot of the anger on Weibo is focused on Eason Chan’s treatment of the actor, as well as Chan’s stealing of the center position, or “C位”, in a group photo:

From all accounts, The Avengers stars handled the experience with patience and grace. Robert Downey Jr.’s Instagram has been flooded with apologies from fans who attended:

Marvel China clearly has some damage control to do, as they seem to be the focus of ire over the event. Their Weibo account has so far failed to address the complaints, leading the hashtag “Marvel China must apologize“ #漫威中国宣发道歉# to trend strongly on Weibo today.

Below are some photos from the insane crowds that showed up at midnight the night before, something the organizers hadn’t anticipated, causing Marvel’s Weibo account to issue a 1:00am plea to fans to remain calm and orderly.

This article was written by Jessica Colwell.