Marvel Studios isn’t unfamiliar with leaks or leakers. From characters, to entire movie plots have been released to the public via Twitter or Reddit. Generally, the company doesn’t bother to track down who did it, but it looks like that’s changing now. The company is looking to find out and identify the people/person who leaked a 63-page dialogue transcript of Ant-Man 3 online about a month before the film’s premiere.
Disney And Marvel Studios Seek Legal Action Against A Subreddit
As per Variety, a request was filed on March 10 in the California federal district court to urge Reddit to disclose the group or person responsible for leaking the dialogues of Ant-Man 3. Here’s what the outlet wrote:
“A request filed Friday (March 10) on behalf of Marvel in federal district court in California asked the court to issue a subpoena to compel Reddit to identify the person or group responsible for sharing dialogue from “Quantumania” to the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit “on or about” Jan. 20, 2023. The film, starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Jonathan Majors, opened wide in the U.S. on Feb. 17.”
The site further said:
“Marvel requested ‘all Identifying Information for the user ‘u/MSSmods” as well as that of ‘any other user(s) responsible for posting, editing, and/or maintaining the content’ that was available on the subreddit (but is no longer) for the period from Jan. 15-Feb. 15. The Marvel subpoena request was filed pursuant to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).”
Marvel Studios Spoilers (MSS) has now gone private and MCU fans are lamenting the decision taken by Marvel Studios to go after the subreddit. However, most fans aren’t blaming the subreddit or its leakers for disclosing the script of Ant-Man 3. In fact, most are praising the leakers for letting them know beforehand how bad the film was.
MCU Fans Back Up Ant-Man 3 Leakers
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has not really lived up to Marvel Studios’ standards. Its Rotten Tomatoes review score is 47% and CinemaScore is a B. At the box office, it has only managed to gather $198 million domestically after its fourth weekend. On the global stage, it has collected about $448.3 million till now. It’s predicted that it will wrap up with about $500 million in its bag in total.
For a Marvel film that was hyped up endlessly to usher in Phase 5 with the new villain Kang, these are dismal numbers. Even the much-maligned Thor 4 posted up a respectable $760 million worldwide. As such, fans are unhappy with Marvel’s decision to go after the leakers who helped the public know that Ant-Man 3 wasn’t worth their time.
Here’s what the fans are saying:
That leaker was a hero. He warned us of that terrible script.
— Seif (@seifwtf) March 13, 2023
The script was awful. Maybe Disney should just not hire that Rick n Morty writer again instead of losing more money on this movie.
— Alia (@Aliathewhite) March 14, 2023
I would like to issue a subpoena to compel Marvel & the individuals responsible to never put out a movie as bad as Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania ever again
— Nicholas (@NicholasJLevi) March 13, 2023
They are 100% doing this because it was a flop
— ryan_duckworth 🐝🐝 (@douschenozzle) March 13, 2023
That movie had a script?? I thought it was just animators having fun with a green screen
— Shleemy Shlmeezle (@TTurtlebuddy) March 14, 2023
Common marvel L
— Nasani 🎮 (@Nasani01) March 13, 2023
Many fans have alleged that Marvel Studios and Disney are only going after the subreddit now because Ant-Man 3 failed to post good box-office numbers. After all, previously, scripts of various Marvel films ranging from Spider-Man: No Way Home to Doctor Strange 2 and way more have leaked on the same subreddit. However, the company had taken no action on it. It remains to be seen what happens as a result of this recent filing.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Marvel Studios’ next offering, releases on 5 May 2023.
Source: Variety
