The Alleged ‘Avatar’ Film Leaker Has Been Arrested

Two weeks after Paramount Footage’ The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender film leaked on-line, a person suspected of being behind the leak has been arrested.

Based on the Straits Times, police in Singapore have arrested a 26-year-old man accused of what’s been known as one of many largest film leaks in current reminiscence. Based on the publication, police found that the leaker gained unauthorized distant entry to the server on which the animated movie was saved, main him to allegedly obtain and add clips of the movie on-line. The movie was later reposted on social media in its entirety.

The Straits Instances experiences that the accused leaker is now beneath investigation for unauthorized entry to pc materials—an offense that carries a possible seven‑12 months jail sentence, a nice of as much as $50,000, or each.

When clips of The Legend of Aang first hit the web on April 12 on X/Twitter by consumer @ImStillDissin, the prevailing principle was that the movie had been leaked internally, seeing as how the account coupled its add with the caption “Nickelodeon by chance emailed me the whole Avatar aang film.”

Nonetheless, a report from the Hollywood Reporter revealed that the leak didn’t come from inside Paramount however from a hacker from PeggleCrew—the identical troupe behind an notorious 2016 cyberattack on the internet hosting web site FossHub.

“I noticed it’s only a Paramount+ factor, so I made a decision I’d troll slightly bit,” ImStillDing advised THR, noting that they didn’t even know what The Legend of Aang even was earlier than including their not leaking the whole film was “not essentially out of respect to Paramount.” Both method, the entire movie ultimately wound up on-line for all to see.

The Avatar: The Final Airbender fandom has been in turmoil within the wake of the leaks hitting the web. On the one hand, followers felt jilted by Paramount, which had a history of not caring deeply about the franchise, to the purpose the place the primary substantial peek on the movie wasn’t within the type of a poster or a trailer however a Target T-shirt followers randomly noticed within the wild promotion.

That, coupled with the truth that the film’s initially deliberate theatrical launch was shifted to streaming on Paramount+, solely added gasoline to the hearth, main some followers to observe the leaked model of the movie in protest.

Even Avatar actors have gotten concerned. Actors like Michaela Jill Murphy, the unique voice actor for Toph Beifong, have shared TikTok videos imploring of us to keep away from watching leaked clips out of respect for the animators at Flying Bark, who put their coronary heart and soul into bringing The Legend of Aang to life.

“If you wish to be respectful, and if you wish to understand how I really feel, cease sharing it. Cease consuming it. Cease speaking about it. And watch it when it comes out,” Murphy mentioned. “That’s what I’m doing. And if you wish to respect the creators and respect the solid and respect me and respect the artwork, then cease sharing it and modifying it and taking a look at it and commenting about it.”

We labored on the aang film for years with the expectation that’d we’d get to have a good time all of our exhausting work in theaters.. simply to see
folks unceremoniously leak the movie and cross our pictures round on twitter like sweet.. (1/3)

— jul 🐯 (@papajoolia) April 14, 2026

Animator Julia Schoel additionally took to social media to voice her frustration—not simply over the movie leaking however over the near-total absence of promotion. In the identical breath, she used the second to highlight the artists who poured themselves into bringing the film to life, a narrative that follows an grownup Aang and his crew reuniting for an additional whirlwind journey.

“I don’t like seeing folks use Paramount’s terrible resolution to take away the film from theaters to justify leaking it. I completely perceive of us not eager to pay for/assist Paramount+, however pirating the film after its launch would have no less than been higher than this,” Schoel wrote. “That is extremely disrespectful to all the exhausting work the artists put in.”

io9 reached out to Paramount for touch upon whether or not the studio nonetheless plans on releasing the movie on Paramount+

Ought to Paramount keep the course, followers can stay up for watching the first of three Avatar films when it formally releases on Paramount+ this October.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot that you must find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.