If any MCU fans were to glimpse at the trending topics on various social media platforms yesterday, they would be forgiven for thinking that Marvel had just released the first look at the upcoming fourth Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movie, Brand New Day.
And while there did seem to be a potato-quality copy of something swinging around the web, Marvel certainly didn’t release it.
Purportedly a cellphone video capturing footage from a market research app, the leaked trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the topic of conversation on the nerdier corners of the internet. Do those pixel represent Sadie Sink’s character? Does that blob there confirm the casting of X-Men’s the Blob?? Do I need to get a new prescription for my glasses?!?
The leak was the latest in a series of premature disclosures for next year’s biggest movies, coming quickly in the wake of rumors about one or potentially more Avengers: Doomsday teasers and the months after shoddy bootlegs of Christopher Nolan’s theatrical-only preview of The Odyssey appeared online.
With some of the most anticipated pieces of movie marketing suddenly popping up online, there seems to have been a shift in how this information finds its way out into the world. So what is going on? While we wait for the official releases of these trailers — or at the very least until we can go see what’s playing before Avatar: Fire and Ash — here are some (admittedly cranky) theories about why these leaks keep happening.
No one can wait for anything
Going hand and hand with the idea that content online shouldn’t need to be paid for, there’s a prevailing notion that if a piece of media exists, people are entitled to it. Whether the trailer is ready or to the liking of the filmmakers doesn’t matter. This kind of thinking is also what has led to the rise of “scoop” reporting in pop culture that is actually just sharing plot details before a book, movie, or series is released.
People have phones and aren’t shy about using them
TikTok was awash with Wicked: For Good clips, filmed on phones, the same weekend that it opened in theaters. An Instagram post with a movie’s title card is a common occurrence. Post pandemic, the use of phones in theaters has gone tacitly permitted by the national chains that a happy anyone’s showing up at all, even though it sucks and is objectively bad.
Clout chasers will chase clout
If the Brand New Day teaser was, in fact, recorded off of a protected market research app, the culprit is going to be found. Whether that person considered that or not is unclear, but what they did think about was the shine they’d get from being the person who delivered the first look at the preview to the world.