The online leak a full version of Avatar: Aang, the Last Airbender-a highly anticipated animated film in a multimedia fantasy franchise- has divided passionate fans while upsetting those who spent years working on the movie.
THE leaks started the X late Saturday night, about six months before Aang was to premiere on Paramount+. User @ImStillDissin posted two short clips of the film. “Nickelodeon accidentally emailed me the entire Avatar aang movie,” he claimed. He also threatened to release the entire film if Paramount did not release an official trailer, and he released an image of the film’s end credits, revealing previously undisclosed voiceovers and roles. Media posts from @ImStillDissin were later hit with copyright strikes and removed.
But within 48 hours, links to download the full film appeared on 4chan and X, where some users also streamed the film directly. On the web, fans declared that they had succeeded hacked and monitored what appeared to be a nearly completed project and “beautiful“Animated film.
While some argued that Paramount deserved to be punished due to certain creative and marketing decisions surrounding the film, others pointed out how the leak was a blow to the animators and production team. A number of team members took to social media to express their sadness and frustration.
“We worked on the Aang movie for years with the hope that [sic] we could celebrate all our hard work in theaters. Just to see people unceremoniously leak the movie and spread our shots on Twitter like candy,” host Julia Schoel wrote Tuesday X.
The user behind @ImStillDissin, who did not want to reveal his real name for fear of legal consequences, told WIRED that he obtained the film almost by chance and did not expect his posts to trigger such a crisis in the entertainment world. “When I posted those clips, I was purely trolling,” he says. “I was expecting an agricultural influence day at best, not for it all to blow up like this.”
(While WIRED has done its due diligence in verifying that the person speaking to us was behind the @ImStillDissin X account, we recognize that the hacker community is notorious for trolling.)
According to @ImStillDissin, a screen-captured version of Avatar: Aang, the Last Airbender was circulating among people he knew from his years in the hacker community, one of whom shared it with him. “Generally speaking, the film and television supply chain is full of insecure companies and suppliers and lax controls,” he says. He notes that two Spongebob movies leaked months before their release date in 2024. “Someone on 4chan who wasn’t happy with my drip feed posted a copy of a draft script[ofthenew[ofthenewAvatar film]about two years ago,” says @ImStillDissin.
Neither Nickelodeon nor its parent company Paramount have confirmed that a hack has taken place nor have they released a statement on the matter. They also did not respond to requests for comment.
Originally announced in 2021, Avatar: Aang, the Last Airbender marked the first production for Avatar Studios, a division of Nickelodeon’s animation department.
Some people felt justified in pirating and sharing the film because of the voice actor overhaul. Last year, during a Reddit AMAcasting director Jenny Jue wrote that the voice emitted from the Avatar The TV show that aired on Nickelodeon in the 2000s was not returning due to efforts to “match the actors’ ethnic/racial background to the characters they portray.”
This comment sparked a wave of complaints from fans about “identity politics.” Some predicted a “backlash» from those nostalgic for the voices of the actors of the television series.
Then, late last year, Paramount announced that it cancelation a planned October 2026 theatrical release for the film, instead opting to make it exclusively available for streaming on Paramount+. This decision sparked an outcry from fans who were eagerly waiting to see the film on the big screen. (Resentment over this was also used to justify leaking the film.)
People have cited these two decisions as reasons to watch the film sooner.
“After what Nickelodeon and Paramount did to voice actors, I don’t care.” wrote user Some have suggested that while they have sympathy for the creative team, the creators at Paramount close ties with Donald Trump via CEO David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, left them conflicted. “On one hand I feel bad for the creators but on the other hand fuck Paramount and their MAGA asses,” another X user job.
When he received a copy of the film, @ImStillDissin was unaware of either controversy. “I googled it and saw it was going to be a Paramount+ release and thought ‘Oh, whatever, I guess it’s not that bad.'” So he watermarked his clips with the name “PeggleCrew” as a thank you to his old gang of mischievous hackersshared them on X and started his troll comment.
This incident is a stark reminder of how difficult it can be to protect painstakingly created works of art in the age of mass streaming, media consolidation, and culture war politics that infect already strained fan communities.
“Leaking a film before its release undermines the entire effort at the most vulnerable moment,” Schoel wrote. “No marketing, premieres, etc., which harm the reputation of the film and affect future opportunities for the artists who worked on it.”
Jason Scheier, a production designer at Sony Animation who worked on the film for several months, told WIRED that it was disappointing to see fans sharing the leaked film without concern for the creatives’ future career prospects.
“Revenue determines whether sequels get the green light and how a film covers its production and marketing costs. This is devastating for the crew and for the studios producing the film.”
