The eagerly awaited “Spider-Man: No Way Home” trailer leaked to the internet on Sunday, setting social media alight while causing a firestorm for Sony.
The title began trending on Twitter as countless accounts shared the footage, which appears to be a phone recording of another phone recording. Sony then issued as many DMCA takedowns as they could, attempting to snuff out the tweets as quickly as possible. Many posts sharing the trailer were taken down and slapped with a copyright statement. “The media has been disabled in response to a report from the copyright owner,” the message reads.
Meanwhile, Sony has not yet commented on the fiasco. However, Tom Holland, seemingly referring to news of the leak, posted the message “You Ain’t Ready!” to his Instagram Stories.
The chain of events that led to the leak is surrounded by as much mystery and intrigue as any Hollywood caper.
The trailer is watermarked with the name Wassilia Lmouaci. According to IMDb, Lmouaci is an acclaimed VFX artist with such notable credits to her name as “It Chapter Two,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” and more.
Furthermore, there’s another name watermarked underneath hers, Superhero Theorist Edward Rose. That’s the name of a superhero podcast that just so happened to have suddenly deleted its Twitter account:
The podcast is hosted by Ed Rose, seemingly in association with nerd news site Murphy’s Multiverse and their podcast network Murphy’s Multiverse of Podcasts.
Why the dueling watermarks is unclear. It is unlikely someone of Lmouaci’s station acted maliciously in any way, however the possibility she acted carelessly with the footage is obviously on the table.
As for Rose and given his place in the media environment, it is more likely he allegedly got his hands on the trailer and the leak potentially stemmed from his actions.
However, the possibility also exists that the footage was outright hacked, meaning that Lmouaci and Rose each represent a victim in the scenario, with their reputations both damaged through no fault of their own actions.
A similar occurrence happened a few years ago when Doctor Who episodes leaked before airing and the name on the videos was the victim rather than the leaker.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is currently slated to arrive in theaters Dec. 17. To watched the leaked footage, click on this Reddit thread HERE.
