In our 24/7 celebrity and Hollywood driven news cycle, paparazzi photos of the sets of upcoming films are par for the course. While these are avoidable to a certain degree, given the saturation of set photos on various geek blogs for movies that will draw interest, it’s not completely unavoidable.

And that brings me to The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While the paps were just doing their job by sneaking photos from The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s set, they may have inadvertently spoiled a massive part of the movie. It’s not like they were hiding who the villain was but the part of the plot that was recently spoiled is absolutely massive and definitely something Sony/Columbia and Marvel wouldn’t want getting out.

Alright, from here on out, I’m going spoiler mode. I’m going to have to reveal that spoiler to discuss the implications of that celebrity news cycle on spoiling movies. You’ve been warned.

So here’s the picture from the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s set. And here’s a very similar looking page from The Amazing Spider-Man #121 from June 1973.

When The Daily Mail ran with the photos, they did a story about fashion and wardrobe. If the Mail had a Spider-Man comic book fan on staff, they would have known that those photos and that outfit was likely a massive spoiler… Unless you think that the blame shouldn’t be laid squarely at the feet of the paparazzi who took the pictures and the newspaper that bought the photos.

One could just as easily blame the blogs and websites that trade in geek culture such as comic books and superheroes. They’re the ones who connected the dots and said that these photos from the set are spoilers. Are they spoiling it themselves by connecting the dots or protecting long-time Spider-Man fans by saying, “If you see these photos, the big twist to this movie will be spoiled for you?”

So who spoiled The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Well, I don’t think you can blame anyone in particular. It starts with a celebrity obsessed culture, goes through the chicken vs. the egg argument as to whether paps take set pictures because people will look at them or people will look at the pictures because they’ve been taken and finishes with the analysis of pictures by the media to confirm that these pictures are spoilers.

It’s not just here. It’s pictures from the set of any movie. Just wait until the next big blockbuster like Bond 24 or Episode VII when set photos from paps will sell like hotcakes and we have to deal with speculation and spoilers.

I’d love to avoid all the spoilers but it’s just impossible. Everything I try avoiding spoilers to, be it movies, TV shows or video games, inevitably gets spoiled and it pisses me off. I can’t imagine that “just don’t read spoilers” works anymore.

Source: Gamma Squad