The person behind the anonymous X account, ImStillDissin, thought he was just trolling when he leaked two two-minute clips of the show. The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender. On Sunday, a friend from his pirating days sent him a complete copy of the film. He didn’t know what it was until he looked it up.
“I saw it was just a Paramount+ thing, so I decided to troll a little bit” by posting the videos, he says, explaining that he doesn’t think it’s a big deal since the movie won’t be released in theaters. He added a #PeggleCrew watermark to the clips, indicating the affiliation of the hacker to whom he sent the film.
Within hours, the videos had reached the farthest corners of the Internet. This includes 4Chan, where a community of elite hackers discuss and trade illegally obtained movies and TV shows among themselves and, sometimes, sell their products to the highest bidder. Posters urged ImStillDissin to leak the full movie. He resisted, even though it didn’t matter. By Monday, an unrelated account that appeared to belong to someone in Singapore had leaked the full movie. It has been widely distributed across its die-hard fan base ever since.
Hollywood is no stranger to leaks. Screening devices The Revenant, Zero Dark Thirty and game of thrones They all hit the Internet days or even weeks before their official release. However, you’ll have to go back to 2017, when hackers stole episodes from the series’ most recent season Orange is the new black From the series’ post-production vendor trying to blackmail Netflix, due to another incident involving a major title like The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender It was leaked months ago.
Paramount conducted an investigation into the incident. As part of an ongoing investigation, the company has ruled out the possibility that the leak was caused by a security flaw in its systems, sources familiar with the situation said. Hollywood Reporter. The movie clips on X are still being removed through the copyright takedown process.
The fallout sparked debate over Paramount’s decision to forego a traditional theatrical release in exchange for a valuable franchise. The original series made a splash on Netflix in 2020 when it topped the daily streaming chart for more than 60 consecutive days — a record at the time for a non-Netflix original — and even last year when it ranked as the third most-streamed anime show on the platform two decades after its release. The series finished in Nielsen’s top 100 most-streamed titles during 17 of the 139 weeks since its debut on the platform in March 2023. Paramount has decided to move beyond the theatrical run as part of its plan for its streaming tool to become the exclusive home for all animated content from Avatar Studios, the creative force behind the universe.
In a sign of Paramount’s move away from releasing the film theatrically, some fans defended their choice to illegally download the leaked film. One common refrain: They were going to pirate the movie anyway because it was going to premiere on Paramount+.
“Anyone who saw the leak wouldn’t even watch it on Paramount+ in the first place,” a 4Chan account posted. “It literally makes no difference.”
Another praised the animation and said the film “deserves to be shown in theaters.” They added of Paramount: “You fund an animation like this, and throw it out on a dead platform without any fucking ads? The leak is worth it.”
The film’s animators urged fans to resist watching, explaining that doing so undermines the work of the cast and crew. “This is incredibly disrespectful to all the hard work the artists have put in,” Julia Showell, author of the animated short, wrote. Baby legend Which he also worked on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The MovieOn
Tessa Bright, director of animation at Flying Bark Studios, who animated the film, added: “It is completely reasonable for anyone who worked on this project to feel frustrated by this situation. The amount of effort and dedication that went into making this film speaks for itself in the final product and I’m sure many of you will agree.”
ImStillDissin says he never planned to leak the entire film “not necessarily out of respect for Paramount” but because “it’s a stupid thing to do to animators.”
It doesn’t matter. The video was obtained by someone affiliated with PeggleCrew, a hacking group best known for its 2016 infiltration of a download hosting site to distribute malware, but it appears others have already obtained the full movie.
“A lot of people have had access,” says ImStillDissin, “and not just my friend.”
The origin of the video he received is unclear. It was a recording of the movie, which means there were likely security measures in place to prevent unauthorized downloading. The copy of the film that was eventually pirated online was a high-quality file, which may indicate a breach in the systems maintained by those who worked on the film.
The incident comes on the heels of an incomplete version from Paramount Bikini Bottom Rescue: Sandy Cheeks Movie It leaks two weeks before its theatrical release in 2024 The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender It’s scheduled to debut on Paramount+ in October, though the leak may force the David Ellison-led company to reconsider its plans.
