Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of leaks from upcoming movies, but it’s still pretty rare for an entire film to leak online months before its release. But that’s exactly what happened to The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender over the weekend, which was leaked in its entirety. Uh oh.
A user on X began sharing clips from the film, claiming the movie had been “accidentally emailed” to them. The user then threatened to post the entire movie if Paramount didn’t release a trailer. Another account wound up releasing the whole movie.
The studio was quick to hit the posts with copyright notices, but the movie had already gone viral across social media. Paramount has been investigating the incident. According to THR, the company eliminated the possibility that the leak was caused by a vulnerability in its systems. The film was originally supposed to be released in theaters, but that was later changed to a premiere on Paramount+. This has led some to justify the leak, as they would’ve simply pirated the film anyway.
Julia Schoel, an animator who worked on The Legend of Aang, said using “Paramount’s awful decision to remove the movie from theaters to justify leaking it” was “disrespectful to all the hard work the artists put in.“
She added, “We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that’d we’d get to celebrate all of our hard work in theaters, just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on twitter like candy.“
The film follows Aang, the world’s last Airbender, as he learns of an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction. With the help of his friends, he embarks on a global quest to find it before it falls into the wrong hands and threatens to upend the peace they sacrificed everything to achieve. The voice cast includes Eric Nam as Aang, Jessica Matten as Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, Dionne Quan as Toph, Steven Yeun as Zuko, and Dave Bautista as the main villain. It will be released on Paramount+ on October 9.
In addition to the movie, the Avatar franchise will continue with a brand-new sequel series. Nickelodeon officially ordered Avatar: Seven Havens last year. The new series comes from original creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is “set in a world shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra – but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.“