This week has been beyond annoying with the HUGE Wandavision leaks and spoilers… Not small little spoilers either – big massive ones. To the point about whether I actually want to continue watching the series – especially after the last episode.

However, I want to make a clear distinction: I do not consider finding out what happened in the comics a spoiler. Especially as Kevin Feige has always seemed to use the comics as inspiration, rather than an exact blueprint to what happens in the MCU.

Whoever, what I do find disgusting is the amount of blatant spoilers that official Disney channels are willing to pump out – smacking of desperation. The constant amount of teaser trailers throughout the week between episodes, leaving nothing to the imagination or to speculate for the next episode.

Why the leak released on YouTube is important

But the major, insane, totally left-field spoiler that was ‘leaked’ this week, was totally uncalled-for. Some people may say that someone in Disney may have leaked it and wasn’t official, however the fact the leak is available STILL several days after it was dropped, on YouTube no less, basically confirms that this was intended. The reason? Disney is a massive media house, with multiple branches, all with additional powers on YouTube than most users. Anyone of these multiple official channels, with their multiple personnel, could (within seconds) copyright claim and remove this major leak from YouTube.

Also, YouTube has a ContentID system and Copyright Verification System available to Disney and its multiple media outlets – meaning they can simply upload to the system the clips that were ‘leaked’ to these programs with instructions on how YouTube should act once it found any matches of the material, and the website would automatically find the leaks and block them (if programmed to).

The fact this didn’t happen – and even now while I type this rant hasn’t happened – clearly indicates that this MAJOR ‘leak’ was intentional and purposeful. If the leak happened on any other platform to distribute, then fair enough it would be more difficult. But YouTube is built, from experience, to be able to stop this kind of thing.

By the way, notice that I am not mentioning what the leak is here – with good reason.

What this says about Disney+

Obviously this is all speculation, but I don’t think Wandavision is being the hit they wanted / expected it to be. Unlike Star Wars: The Mandalorian, which was also released weekly, Marvel audiences are used to being able to binge-watch episodes. I think this is mainly due to the demographic of the audience – and the ‘training’ of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Disney being an old-school media house is used to traditional control over releases, and simply do not understand the change in audience behaviours as they venture out with Disney+.

Disney also seems to not understand that as audiences we are more educated about how businesses work than we once did. So while Disney expects / wants people to have to subscribe for the whole two-month run, people are more likely to hold off and wait till the whole series is released, to then binge-watch.

So through this panic, Disney is constantly spamming to get people interested in Wandavision. But in doing so, is ruining the thriller for those who are invested (AND paid up members). Eventually meaning that no one is happy.

My Solutions / Lessons Disney needs to Learn

Here are a few ideas I had for Disney:

  1. Next time, release the series in bulk.
    You are not going to turn the change and expectations of the newly learned behaviours of the audience. It is futile to try. The goal posts have moved, you need to move to them – rather than expecting them to follow you.
  2. Let the series speak for itself
    Stop letting the accountants panic about the lack of sign ups to the Disney+ service vs The amount of episodes cloud your judgement. If you’re trying to build your own Netflix, then learn from Netflix. Surely if you want a piece of the pie, then you must first learn what makes them the legendary OG of streaming services. Amazon Prime can learn (mostly) the lessons, so can you.
  3. Slow releasing is not the answer
    Banking on drip-feeding one series at a time, is a pointless endeavour. The new gameplay is a new series every week/month, with much hype at its release. With the amount of outlets and media houses within Disney, this is stupidly easy to achieve in-house. Each project needs one teaser a few months out, then a dramatic full trailer at launch. That’s it. If you keep releasing these teaser trailers, then there is no point of watching the series, as all the ‘surprises’ are already out in the public.