
The Walt Disney Company takes infringements seriously, that much is clear. And certain recent happenings are serving as proof that one should think very carefully before going up against the entertainment giant (and then preferably not do it). In news that might surprise many Disney fans, it has recently been revealed that the Walt Disney Company has been granted subpoenas against two major names and companies: Google i.e. Alphabet Inc., and Reddit. And the reason behind Disney pursuing this is the Ant-man & the Wasp: Quantumania script leak that occurred earlier this year.
This began one month prior to the Marvel movie’s theatrical premiere. A person (or some people) allegedly released a 63-page transcript of dialogue from the then-upcoming movie. The script reportedly appeared on a Reddit forum and used Google docs to distribute the script.
While this hasn’t seemed to have impacted the profits seen by the movie too much—as noted by Bloomberg, “the third installment in the Ant-Man franchise has gone on to gross $448 million worldwide”—Disney is determined to uncover the individual behind the leak and has obtained subpoenas to achieve this.
On March 10, Marvel filed a request with a federal district court requesting the court to issue a subpoena. The subpoena, as one can guess, was to demand that Reddit identify the person or group responsible for sharing dialogue from Quantumania to the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit “on or about” January 20, 2023.
Reddit shared with Bloomberg in a statement that “Reddit is committed to protecting our users’ privacy…We have rigorous processes in place to assess legal requests and object when appropriate.”
Alphabet Inc., did not comment.
The Quantumania leak is one that Disney is clearly taking seriously, and it seems that the offending parties will be dealt with appropriately, perhaps as a warning to any others who might consider the same course of action.