Credit: Marvel Studios“Nothing is secret once you tell someone. If you want to keep it quiet, don’t tell a soul,” Richard Chamberlain.
The Walt Disney Company and Marvel Studios are discovering just how accurate that quote is.
Disney and Marvel have issued subpoenas to Instagram to obtain account information, including the identity of the person behind the account after leaks showed clips from Captain America: Brave New World.Â
The account CanWeGetSomeToast uploaded footage from the new Captain America film, which will be released in 2025. Matthew Slatoff, the Vice President of Global Security and Content Production at Marvel Studios, has requested that Instagram reveal the name of the person behind the account and their information to determine how the leaks happened.
Matthew Slatoff said the subpoenas were to:
identify an alleged infringer (or infringers) using the handle @canwegetsometoast who published a copyrighted image from an upcoming Marvel Studios motion picture, ‘Captain America: Brave New World,’ without authorization.
The Instagram account CanWeGetSomeToast routinely shares leaked information from Marvel Studios and non-Marvel movies. However, this is the first time that Disney and Marvel have reacted with subpoenas to the social media network. Currently, on their Instagram story, there are behind-the-scenes photos of Marvel’s Thunderbolts and Echo. The leaked Captain America footage is still available.
Sebastian Stan on set for Marvel’s ‘THUNDERBOLTS*’. pic.twitter.com/hA8qWRtZee
— CanWeGetSomeToast (@CanWeGetToast) May 11, 2024
It is still unclear what action Instagram will take after receiving this subpoena. While Disney and Marvel Studios seek to protect the integrity and secrecy of their movies, Instagram must protect its user and their social media account.
While Disney and Marvel are taking action against the leaked Captain America footage, they were not so quick to act when their partner McDonald’s accidentally leaked information about the movie.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s accidentally released toys from the film in its Happy Meals. Five of the film’s characters were revealed: Captain America, a new Falcon, Ruth, Diamondback, and Red Hulk.
This is not the first time Marvel has had to stop leakers. Last year, a script for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released on Reddit. Marvel issued a copyright infringement notice to Google, and the script was taken down.
It is unclear if Meta, which owns Instagram, will react to this subpoena. The company has 30 days to respond to Disney and Marvel’s request.
Captain America: Brave New World was supposed to debut this summer; however, late last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger shuffled the company’s release schedule, moving Deadpool and Wolverine into the summer slot once occupied by Captain America. The Anthony Mackie film will be released in February 2025.
Should Disney be going this far to protect itself from leakers?Â