Warner Bros. Executives were faced with a dilemma when a Comic-Con visitor posted a pirated, low-quality tape of the studio’s Suicide Squad sizzle reel online. Should they wait to release a trailer on their own terms while a poor rendition made its way around the Internet, or put out the high-resolution version earlier than they wanted?
The studio went with the latter option on Monday, putting out the clean version of the three-minute teaser on YouTube.
Sue Kroll, president of worldwide marketing and international distribution for the studio, told Deadline, “We regret this decision as it was our intention to keep the footage as a unique experience for the Comic-Con crowd, but we cannot continue to allow the film to be represented by the poor quality of the pirated footage stolen from our presentation.”
The gang of dangerous criminals busted out of jail to work on black ops for a government agency are played by a star-studded cast of characters including Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto and Cara Delevingne. Suicide Squad is scheduled to hit theaters on Aug. 5, 2016.