The Straits Times reports Singaporean police have arrested a 26-year-old man who is alleged to have uploaded the new Avatar movie (previously titled The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender) online after accessing a server where the project was being held ahead of its scheduled October 9th premiere on Paramount Plus. According to the authorities, a copy of the entire movie was found on the suspect’s electronic devices. If he is ultimately found guilty for unauthorized access to computer material, he could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years as well a fine of $50,000.
The leaks first appeared in an April 11th X post from an anonymous user who claimed that someone at Nickelodeon (which is owned by Paramount Skydance) “accidentally emailed [them] the entire Avatar Aang Movie.” While the post has since been taken down, it initially stayed up for hours, and the leaked footage quickly began to spread online.
It’s not clear whether the X account user is the same person who has been arrested. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, a person claiming to be behind the leak account said that they were trying to “troll a little bit” because of Paramount’s decision to release Avatar Aang directly to its streaming service rather than giving it a theatrical debut as the studio originally announced. But this specific leaker also told THR that they did not plan to upload the entire film after originally receiving it from a hacker associated with the PeggleCrew hacking collective. After its internal investigation, Paramount determined that the leaks did not come from anyone working in the company itself.
Though leaks are nothing new for the entertainment industry, it was shocking to see basically all of a completed film hit the internet months before its intended release in such high definition.The situation hit Avatar fans particularly hard given how Avatar Aang — the first of three planned animated films — marked the first time that series co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino would return to the franchise following their sudden exit from Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the original animated show.
People with direct professional connections to the Avatar franchise also spoke out. Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph Beifong’s original voice actress) — who urged her fans on TikTok not to engage with the leaks at all out of respect for the movie’s creative team. Animator Julia Schoel, who worked on Avatar Aang, spoke bluntly on X about the leaker’s logic and said that “Paramount’s awful decision” to punt the movie to streaming did not justify posting the film ahead of schedule.
“I totally understand folks not wanting to pay for/support [Paramount Plus],” Schoel explained. “But pirating the movie after its release would have at least been better than this. This is incredibly disrespectful to all of the hard work the artists put in.”
News of the alleged leaker’s arrest comes just a few days after the Tokyo District court sentenced a man to prison for running a website dedicated to posting spoiler-filled summaries of newly released series and films. And while piracy isn’t likely going to end any time soon, it’s really starting to look like the studios are ready to start playing hardball when it comes to protecting their intellectual property.