Marvel Just Got An Entire Online Community Canceled And Are Hunting Down Its Leader
Marvel has gone to federal district court, looking to find the Reddit user who leaked the Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania script online before the film's theatrical release.
Back in January, a dialogue transcript for the movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was posted by a user to Reddit. Now Marvel is fighting back with a new legal filing, according to Variety. On March 10th, Marvel filed a request to a federal district court in California, asking for a subpoena demanding the information of the user who posted the information to social media.
The 63-page transcript was posted to Reddit about a month before the film’s theatrical premiere, opening users up to spoilers about the film well before its intended release. In the filing, Marvel requested “all identifying information” about users who may be involved with the r/MarvelStudioSpoilers subreddit where the transcript was posted. They specifically asked for information on the user MSSmods, who originally leaked the transcript.
Reddit, however, so far has denied giving up the information, citing its commitment to keeping user data private as the reasoning. The 63-page document is only a transcript of the dialogue in the film and not an entire script, leaving some to believe that it was meant for subtitling the movie. Either way, its release a month before the premiere gave viewers a lot of information about what they could expect to see in the upcoming movie.
Marvel filed a similar request against Google as another transcript of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quatumania shared using Google Docs. The studios filing against Reddit and Google are centered around the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Passed in 1998, the act attempts to protect copyrighted works from being distributed online.
These two filings come as just the most recent actions taken by Marvel against both Reddit and Google. In the past, they have asked both platforms to remove the copyrighted material. Now Marvel is going to new heights to prevent leaks of their scripts. The lead of the upcoming Captain America: New World Order has revealed just how serious Marvel has gotten about handling their scripts.
Anthony Mackie explained how to access their script, and actors need a passcode to get into a website that allows them to see who they are meeting and where. They then have to sit with another person to use the computer to read the script.
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released on February 17th and was met with mostly negative reviews. While the film was a success at the box office, grossing $198 million and outpacing the original Ant-Man by over $10 million, many fans were disappointed. Many cited the film’s poor pacing, shoddy special effects work, and lackluster editing as reasons why they were disappointed by the film.
Unfortunately, the film starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Jonathan Majors had a tumultuous production, with many blaming Marvel for the film’s poor reception. The movie’s VFX artists were quick to throw the studio under the bus when fans began noticing the shortcoming in their work. Even with the threequel‘s poor reception, fans are still looking forward to the studio’s upcoming works which will include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and The Marvels.
