Nearly a month before Thor: Ragnarok was slated to be released digitally on February 20, the film has been made available because of an odd mixup. As a result, the film is being furiously pirated across the internet.
The news first came to light after a handful of users on Reddit noticed they could download the movie via iTunes. Apparently, the premature release is thanks to Disney’s MoviesAnywhere service.
Here’s what one Reddit user said:
I pre-ordered Thor: Ragnarok on Vudu yesterday and it links to my iTunes also. But curiously it showed up in my iTunes library this morning (pre-orders shouldn’t). And now I can watch the full movie in HD. I obviously downloaded it right away. I know it’s supposed to come out on February 20.
The beauty of MoviesAnywhere is it links together different digital providers, such as iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, and more. So, when you order a movie through Google Play Movies, it’ll show up in your iTunes. It’s incredibly useful because it helps keep your different movies in one easy to access library.
This time, however, it was responsible for helping leak one of last year’s best movies a full month before it was set to be available. It’s unclear exactly what caused the mixup, but the damage has already been done, with torrented copies already floating around.
Disney has yet to respond to the mishap, but the premature release could force the company to push up the release date of Thor: Ragnarok by a full month.
