For superhero fans, if there’s one thing that’s even hotter than the Death Valley, it is the ‘Spider-Man No Way Home‘ trailer. The anticipation around the trailer of the new Spider-Man film is so high that the inevitable happened last night. The Spider-Man No Way Home trailer was leaked online, on Tik-Tok, from where it made its way to every social media platform. One must wonder how the invaluable, and obviously heavily-guarded intellectual property of Sony Pictures got into the hands of the leakers in the first place. While there’s no definite evidence of it, a little digging around has given us a pretty good idea of how it must have happened.
Here’s our version of the complete trail of events that must have come together to engineer the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer leak and have it land up online –
1. From the VFX Studios to the VFX artist –
The most incriminating evidence is that the Spider-Man No Way Home leaked trailer video has several watermarks on it. Prominent among those is that of a VFX artist who works in the creative department of a top VFX studio, which is handling the VFX works of Spider-Man No Way Home. We are not naming the VFX studio or the VFX artist here for the sake of maintaining the sanctity of their privacy. Major VFX studios watermark all the copies of their work, to prevent leaks of this sort. Since the VFX artist in question must be working on Spider-Man No Way Home at the moment, the leaked trailer video has her name watermarked on it.
2. From the VFX artist to an outsider –
Anyone in their right mind will never leak a high-profile video that has their name watermarked on it, unless they want a string of legal suits against them. This must mean that the VFX artist did not leak the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer herself. Someone else in the company, a colleague or a junior employee, got hold of the VFX artist’s copy of the trailer somehow, and must have shared it with an outsider.
3. From the outsider to a prominent scooper –
The outsider who now has a copy of the trailer shared it with a well-known scooper (someone who gives scoops on films, series and video games, etc), who goes by the name of Superhero Theorist. Superhero Theorist is also the second name watermarked on the leaked trailer video. Incidentally, Superhero Theorist deleted his Twitter account as soon as word of the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer leak got out.
4. Scooper to final leaker –
So, did the scooper leak the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer online? Again, it seems highly unlikely, coz his name is watermarked on the video. If he really is foolish enough to leak the video with his name emblazoned on it clearly, it is akin to committing professional hara-kiri. He loses serious trust, not only of his employers, but his fans and followers too. It could be possible that someone he shared the video with leaked it online. But then, why watermark it? Was he looking for instant fame as a scooper by leaking it online, without thinking of its ramifications? We’ll never know for sure.
What we do know is that several heads will roll—the VFX artist, for one, and the scooper, for sure. Security around IPs will also be tightened in the future. Whatever it is, the Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer leak shook up the internet like nothing in recent times.
Let’s hope this unpalatable incident isn’t repeated in the near future, and we get to watch the official version of the Spider-Man No Way Home Trailer soon.
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