“Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” is the highly anticipated, upcoming follow-up to the hit series of the same name. Had things gone according to Paramount’s plan, it would’ve been released in theaters on Oct. 9, 2026, but, following a statement from Paramount, it was revealed that the film wouldn’t be released in theaters, but instead exclusively released on Paramount+.
This decision was met with extreme backlash and, to the surprise of many, the movie was released to the public via X just days after the announcement, by a fan who claimed that a Paramount executive accidentally sent him the movie.
Although the leaker initially only showed a few 2-minute clips, they eventually uploaded the entire hour-and-a-half movie in high quality to prove that they did, in fact, have the film in its entirety, after accusations of it either being fabricated or AI-generated started being thrown around.
Immediately, a wave of people both criticizing and applauding the decision sent the post viral, with it garnering millions of views before being inevitably taken down by Paramount.
Eventually, all of the noise led to the animators, who were already annoyed by the movie being pulled from theaters, chiming in. Julia Schoel, an animator for the movie, called it “incredibly disrespectful,” and said that if people didn’t want to support Paramount’s decision, they should’ve just “[pirated] the movie after its release.”
“We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that 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,” Schoel said, via a X post.
The inevitable failure of this movie will cause a ripple effect through Paramount. Animation is a notoriously expensive process, and this, on top of the money spent on advertising and other expenses for a movie that you can now see online for free, is going to lead to a monumental loss.
80 million dollars and several years worth of production have been spent on this movie, with Paramount now taking the brunt of this loss after acquiring Viacom, the previous owner of Nickelodeon, and by extension, the Avatar franchise, in 2019.
The truth is, the animation industry is currently in a state of decline, with a lower-than-average expected job growth, threat from AI and rampant, industry-wide layoffs following the Coronavirus pandemic’s boom.
Sure, this is a big loss for the multi-billion-dollar megacompany in the room but, more importantly, losses like this tend to filter down to the creatives in charge of the projects.
Following the failure of Pixar’s “Lightyear” and “Turning Red,” the company laid off 14% of their total workers in order to mitigate the losses.
Schoel’s words are very true. The leaking of movies isn’t some triumphant victory against the evil companies that are distributing them; it’s just plain disrespect and a drain on an industry that’s already struggling as is.
As of the end of April, Paramount has arrested the alleged leaker, who could face up to 7 years of jail time and a $50,000 fine.
