by Claire Kim
Surely by this point, everyone and anyone has seen the new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. It consists of two-and-a-quarter minutes, stuffed with all of the things that the last Avengers movie left us wanting more of; lots of BAMF action, hints of extra backstory reveals, a bonus cover of a childhood song that doesn’t give any sign of its innocuous origin. Gifsets and edits have already made their rounds of social media, and it seems like all we can do now is wait [im]patiently for the next tidbit Marvel decides to throw at us.
However, not all is fine and dandy with Marvel. When the leak first came out, they jokingly attributed it to Hydra, releasing the official trailer soon after. They made the wise decision of letting the hype die down a bit before going after the illegal uploader. Very recently, there was an announcement that Marvel had been granted a subpoena from a federal judge against Google to help track down the miscreant. The leak is no laughing matter; with phase three of the anticipated superhero movies coming out, Marvel wants to make sure that all their information is controlled and released at appropriate times—especially since the Disney-owned company’s plans have compiled 8 full-length feature films. Any further leaks would greatly weaken their ability to successfully persuade people to pay for movie tickets and the like.
A company as large as Marvel, and with a fanbase as large as it is, will most likely have no problem bringing in the dough when the movie comes out. What is worrying to Marvel this potential lack of control over releasing their products and trailers and posters, which are usually planned to get maximum interest and hype. If Marvel can’t stop leaks from happening, the audience’s interest will shift from ‘official’ releases to whichever illegal uploaders can get them the information the fastest.
