Last week at San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Brothers, and Fox showed several exclusive teasers to promote their upcoming films. While WB’s Trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was immediately put online, the ones for Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and X-Men: Apocalypse were not. It didn’t take long for the fans in attendance to post blurry recordings of what they saw on social media. This forced WB to release an official version of the Suicide Squad Trailer, and while Deadpool Star Ryan Reynolds took to Twitter and announced a high quality version of his films clip will be released soon. We have not heard any official word from Fox, and they have yet to release their two trailers.
During a set visit for 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, IGN and several other outlets asked Hutch Parker, former president of production for 20th Century Fox and current producer for the X-Men movies, how he felt about the leaked footage and if even possibly the studio secretly wants the footage to leak so it would go viral
"I’d say it really isn’t intended to be leaked. It’s really intended to excite a core. From a marketing perspective, what they want is to share it with the most discerning eyes that are out there for this material. It’s the biggest and probably most intense focus group any of us ever have,"
Parker went on to explain how leaking footage on purpose has other negative side effects, and his explanation clues into why Fox has still yet to release their trailers like WB did for Suicide Squad.
"Leaking footage a year in advance of a movie’s release is not such a good thing. The reason you don’t see footage out that far is you run the risk of it getting stale. Generally speaking, and I can’t speak for other studios -- I can’t even speak for Fox any more -- but I don’t believe their intention is [for footage to be leaked]. I think their intention is to get the most important opinions and opinion-makers in this community engaged in the promise of what’s coming."
While not intended to be leaked, as Parker says, the studio does have a purpose for showing the footage at Comic-Con in the first place.
"You hope that you excite a level of interest that [fans] will express and celebrate it. But it’s a scary-ass deal, because they’re not shy. If they don’t like it, if they aren’t feeling it, they’re going to let you and everybody else know. [Showing footage] is something people do with trepidation, but with hope. We make a movie and you want to believe it’s going to be great. The reality is, not all of them are. But you have to believe that going in. We go in wanting to be accepted and embraced, and ideally even acknowledged for having done it well."
He has a lot of valid points. Marvel a victim of leaks last year chose to stay home this year. They felt they were not ready to present, and Star Wars presented a glossy behind the scenes look at their film in lieu of a trailer. While neither made a big splash. Each was able to control their situation. With the average fan having access to a camera and the internet moments after anything is shown. Studios will to have to rethink their Comic-Con strategy in the future. As always leave you comments below.
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.