WASHINGTON, July 14, 2015 – Deadline reports that Warner Brothers has released the first official trailer for its upcoming “Suicide Squad” film well ahead of time. The reason? “Someone in the crowd [during the trailer’s private Hall H presentation on Saturday] recorded footage that was meant solely for show attendees and posted a lousy-quality version online.”

After initially resisting the early release, the studio decided it was better to make the real trailer available rather than allow the pirated trailer to create the wrong impression of the still-in-production DC Universe film, which is scheduled for a 2016 release.

According to Deadline, “Sue Kroll, the studio’s President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution stated Monday that Warners would ‘release the same footage that has been illegally circulating on the web, in the form it was created and high quality with which it was intended to be enjoyed. 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.’”

20th Century Fox Studios experienced the same issue Warners encountered. Its private Hall H showing of an early “Deadpool” trailer was also pirated and posted online this weekend. No word yet from Fox as to how the studio plans to deal with its own dilemma. “Deadpool” features a superhero who’s an offbeat, off-the wall, potentially R-rated spinoff from the X-Men universe.





One upshot of this weekend’s dual Comic Con piracies could be that future Comic Con attendees may no longer get the chance to see ahead-of-release trailers at future comics conventions.

Here’s the official Warners trailer: