By Nadira Goffe

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July 25, 202610:00 AM

Paramount+

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When the entirety of the feature-length sequel to the beloved animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender—titled, similarly, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender—was leaked online in April, chaos ensued. The highly anticipated film hadn’t been slated to drop on Paramount+ until October, but suddenly, months early, it was at the world’s fingertips.

The leak, one of the more memorable media leaks in recent years, wasn’t so shocking because of how much content was mined and illegally distributed (it was just the one film, after all), but because of how sensational this particular choice felt. Ever since it had been announced in 2021 that Nickelodeon would finally invest in more content related to ATLA (as its many devoted fans often refer to the aughts-made series), this film—the first project announced as part of this investment—had become a hot-button topic. The fanbase for the franchise had grown immensely since the series (and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra) became even more popular during the pandemic, increasing the demand for future stories set in this cartoon fantasy universe of people who are gifted with the ability to “bend,” or control, the elements of nature.

But, as Paramount—who owns ViacomCBS and Nickelodeon—had gone through massive changes when it merged with Skydance Media in 2025, so, too, did the film. Avatar Aang had been postponed numerous times before it was eventually shelved from Paramount’s slate of theatrical releases and doomed to a streaming exclusive premiere on Paramount+. This angered fans, particularly one fan tech-savvy enough to hack a media server, obtain the film, and release it, in full, on X. The film circulated widely, much to the chagrin of the creators who worked hard on it, as well as Paramount, which spent a reported $80 million to produce it. Following the leak, a 26-year-old was arrested in Singapore, the film’s release date was belatedly pushed up, and a limited theatrical release was reinstated at the last minute. In short, it’s been an absolute mess. Just how did one movie, and one anonymous X user, achieve all of this? Let’s break it all down.

I didn’t even know they were making a new Avatar: The Last Airbender movie! What’s going on over at Nickelodeon? 

In 2021, Nickelodeon announced the establishment of Avatar Studios, a new content division expressly designed to create new works in the world of ATLA, which had been kept alive following the conclusion of the first series in the form of comics. Alongside the announcement, it was revealed that the new studio’s first project would be a feature-length film, now known to be Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender.

Nickelodeon executives attributed this years-late investment in ATLA media to the massive boost in popularity that both the original show and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, received since their initial run in the aughts and 2010s, respectively. A large part of that popularity boost can be traced back to when both shows landed on Netflix in 2020 during peak quarantine period. The 2020 fervor for ATLA was hard to miss—at the time, Slate even published an oral history on one of the show’s most famous, and most niche, running gags. And that interest has yet to die. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show was “the third-most-streamed animated show” on Netflix last year.

But this news was exciting to die-hard ATLA fans for other reasons. Not only was it nice to hear that we’d be getting more stories about characters we’d grown to love, but it was even better to hear that the original creators of the hit show, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were co–chief creative officers of Avatar Studios. There have been two live-action adaptations of Avatar: The Last Airbender—a 2010 movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan and a currently airing Netflix series that premiered in 2024—neither of which ultimately involved DiMartino and Konietzko. Both live-action versions are largely detested by fans of the original, making any new content helmed by the duo more enticing to lovers of the franchise.

In addition to Avatar Aang, it has also been reported that there are two more films in the works. All three films were initially said to be receiving theatrical releases, though when it came down to it, Avatar Aang was promoted as premiering exclusively on Paramount+. Alongside the films, the other confirmed project from Avatar Studios is a new series, Avatar: Seven Havens, which is set to take place after the events of The Legend of Korra, and will follow a new Avatar, an earthbender named Pavi. The series’ Paramount+ release date was just announced as Oct. 9, after having originally been planned for 2027.

Wait, how did we get from theatrical release for the new movie to a Paramount+ exclusive premiere?

This is an important question because it definitely contributed to many fans’ decision to illegally view the movie when it eventually leaked. The date for the theatrical release was pushed back a number of times before it was announced that the film would actually release as a streaming exclusive. Upon the revelation that the film wouldn’t premiere in theaters, disgruntled fans created an online petition that racked up more than 100,000 signatures demanding a theatrical release.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the plans for Avatar Aang to premiere in theaters were scrapped when David Ellison, conservative tech scion and Skydance Media CEO, took control over Paramount after the two companies completed their merger in 2025. Paramount is now attempting to merge with Warner Bros. Studios in an infamous deal that is currently on pause as multiple states have sued to block it due to concerns that it violates antitrust laws.

I can see why people who don’t have Paramount+ might be more enticed to watch a leak. Speaking of: How did the leak even happen?

On April 12, an anonymous user on X with the handle @ImStillDissin began leaking snippets of the unreleased Avatar Aang movie, which fans had been waiting for since the Avatar Studios announcement in February 2021. Again, the film wasn’t supposed to premiere until October of this year. The initial leaked clips received an incredible amount of traction online, and the next day, the user released a full-length version of the film. I came across it on X myself, in shock: It was, seemingly, the entire movie, in magnificent quality, out there on X and garnering an astronomical number of views and likes. Fans saved the film—I know friends who held watch parties!—and clips from the leak got spliced and uploaded onto TikTok. Plenty of fans were even logging the film on the film-review site Letterboxd.

In a deep dive into the leak, the Hollywood Reporter managed to speak to ImStillDissin, who told the outlet that, after seeing the movie had become “just a Paramount+ thing,” he decided to “troll a little bit.”

That’s a shocking number of people pirating the film, which, lest we forget, is technically illegal!

It’s true, but it also fits a shifting attitude toward piracy that I’ve noticed. At one point, going back in my memory, kids really thought the police were going to show up at their door to arrest them for pirating media, likely influenced by the harsh piracy warnings that appeared on physical media, like VHS tapes and DVDs. Now, though, piracy is frequently framed as a way to get back at greedy corporations, especially as companies increasingly take away physical media in favor of digital media that consumers can’t ever own, even if they shelled out money for it. When Sony announced that it will end the production of physical video game discs by January 2028, pivoting to solely offering digital copies of games, gamers were understandably upset, and a viral TikTok circulated wherein the creator stated plainly that “if buying isn’t owning,” then “piracy isn’t stealing.” Recently, Vietnamese authorities arrested a group of people behind HiAnime, one of the largest illegal streaming networks for anime; in light of this news, the popular refrain was hoping for the alleged perpetrators’ release. When companies can revoke access or change media on a whim, despite the cost of your subscription, I can understand why many consumers feel like they have no choice but to turn to piracy to obtain the media they want.

How did Paramount react to this leak?

Publicly, the reaction from Paramount was a tad confusing. One would think that the studio would immediately push the premiere of the film up, but it took Paramount months to do so. It was only on July 7 that a new, closer release date of July 25 was announced, and only last week that Paramount also announced that it would give Avatar Aang a limited theatrical release, starting on July 24, which would also make the movie eligible to qualify for various awards.

Internally, when Paramount began investigating the leak, they soon concluded that it didn’t come from in-house, meaning that some point of the production chain was likely hacked. In April, a 26-year-old man was arrested in Singapore for allegedly illegally accessing a media server and leaking the film online. According to the Hollywood Reporter’s investigation, though the initial police report doesn’t cite the man’s name, the help of other hackers led them to believe that the person behind the ImStillDissin account is Devesh Logendran, a “cyber whiz” who was charged in 2018 for hacking into the NFL’s Twitter account.

The report also noted that it’s highly believed that the weak security point accessed by the hacker lay in Vision Media, a screening company that hosts tons of content from various studios so that industry professionals and media members (including myself) can view the content for awards purposes. According to THR, ImStillDissin told the outlet during their conversation that his leaking of the film was “kind of unprecedented,” and that he “didn’t really register the consequences.”

What were the consequences, exactly?

We’re going to have to wait to see how this unfolds legally, but there are more than just consequences for the leaker. While it should come as no surprise that fans who don’t want to subscribe to yet another streaming platform would be open to taking advantage of such a leak, that doesn’t mean that people won’t get hurt in the process. A number of animators and behind-the-scenes contributors to the film have spoken out about how damaging, “disrespectful,” and disappointing the leak is to everyone who worked on the project. Financially, it’s likely to be a massive loss to Paramount, which carried a reported $80 million budget to make the movie.

With all the hubbub about the leak, I’m wondering how the actual movie is. Is it good?

It’s … OK! I think fans of the franchise will like it enough, while the more stickler-minded devotees might find some things to nitpick. The story, which takes place between the events of ATLA and The Legend of Korra, is interesting, but fairly predictable and rushed. However, the animation is absolutely stellar, with some captivatingly beautiful scenes. Despite whatever small pitfalls the writing might fall into, the movie upholds much of the integrity of the original show—which was a show for children that nevertheless forefronted themes of genocide and war—by tackling the question of how to rebuild after decimation and devastation. The film also expands upon the lore of ATLA in some interesting ways, though whether those updates make sense remains debatable. More than anything, though, it’s just fun to hang out with that gang of characters again and to see their friendship dynamic play out as adults, so for that reason, I enjoyed watching it.

You mentioned that there are a number of future ATLA projects to come. What might this leak mean for their future?

Nothing good, it seems. ImStillDissin apparently told THR that the aforementioned upcoming series Seven Havens is an intended future target. The alleged leaker left the outlet with a somewhat dramatically ominous statement, claiming: “There are a substantial number of people who have access to internal stuff like this,” and “there’s more under the tip of the iceberg.” The only thing we can do now is wait and see.