Damon Lindelof is a complete and total disciple of J.J. Abrams‘ school of marketing. His days on LOST were marked by the slow reveal of what the island actually was. But, Lindelof has burned several bridges with fans who disliked the ending of that series as well as those who were left underwhelmed by PROMETHEUS last year (I fall into neither category, having loved LOST and PROMETHEUS quite a bit). His involvement with STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS has thus far not been called into question and I think his latest quotes regarding Cumberbatch-Gate (copyright me, bitches!) are exactly on the spot.
Lindelof was interviewed by Hero Complex about the secrecy surrounding Benedict Cumberbatch‘s mysterious villain, John Harrison:
“The audience needs to have the same experience that the crew is having. You’re Kirk, you’re Spock, you’re McCoy, so if they don’t know who the bad guy is going to be in the movie, then you shouldn’t know. It’s not just keeping the secret for secrecy’s sake. It’s not giving the audience information that the characters don’t have.”
Bravo, Mr. Lindelof! I love that we still don’t know who John Harrison is. It is so rare since the advent of the Internet that we can get this close to a movie release and still not know some vital plot details. Once the novelizations and soundtracks and toys begin to hit shelves, I can imagine more will leak out, but if the Bad Robot crew can keep this under wraps until the movie hits release, it will boost the box office significantly. Lindelof explains why this secret is so vital in the best way I have ever heard it explained.
“[If I tell people who Cumberbatch plays, they know that they] would have a five-second rush of exhilaration followed by four months of being completely and totally bummed out that they can’t tell anybody else and that when it gets revealed in the movie, it will have been spoiled for them. That’s why they’re called ‘spoilers,’ they’re not called ‘awesomes.’”
For me, I have become so desensitized to spoilers that they don’t really bother me, but if I can go to a movie this big and sit down and find out the big reveal along with everyone else, it would be an experience I have not had in well over a decade, especially since I began working for this site where learning movie secrets is part of our everyday job.
The marketing of STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS is going to go down in the books as one of the best campaigns in a long while. I just hope the payoff lives up to the hype. STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS hits theaters on May 17th.