An animator on The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender has hit out at the recent high-profile leak of the movie, criticizing those who are using Paramount’s “awful decision” to pull the film from theaters “to justify leaking it.”
Over the weekend, The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender was leaked to X / Twitter months ahead of its official premiere on Paramount+. The account that leaked the movie said Nickelodeon “accidentally” emailed them the full film. The tweets were eventually removed.
In December, it emerged that Paramount had ditched plans for a theatrical release of The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender in favor of an exclusive launch on streaming platform Paramount+.
The much-anticipated animated movie was due out in theaters on October 9, 2026, but Paramount subsequently set Paramount+ as the exclusive home of Avatar Studios content, forcing The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender and original series Avatar: Seven Havens both onto the platform.
Avatar fans who were looking forward to seeing the movie in theaters questioned the decision, which came as a surprise in the context of huge box office success for anime films last year. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, for example, grossed an incredible $774 million at the global box office.
Fast forward to this month’s leak of the entire movie, and some fans responded enthusiastically, pointing to Paramount’s decision to ditch a theatrical release, and shared the leaked footage. That, however, did not sit well with The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender animator Julia Schoel, who took to X / Twitter to express concern.
Schoel, creator of The Legend of Pipi, said: “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.
“I don’t like seeing people use Paramount’s awful decision to remove the movie from theaters to justify leaking it. I totally understand folks not wanting to pay for/support Paramount+, but pirating the movie after its release would have at least been better than this. This is incredibly disrespectful to all of the hard work the artists put in.”
Responding to a question about the difference between pirating the movie before and after launch, given it won’t show up in theaters, Schoel explained: “Leaking a movie before release undermines the entire effort at its most vulnerable moment. No marketing buildup, premieres, etc, which harms the film’s reputation and affects future opportunities for the artists who worked on it.
“Pirating on the other hand, happens after the film has already had the chance to reach audiences through official channels, and does not harm its reputation.”
Schoel has drawn some criticism for the comments, but was backed by others, and, crucially, colleagues in the entertainment industry.
Tessa Bright, animation director at Flying Bark Studio, said: “Hi all, I worked on this film on a leadership capacity. I understand that we all have opinions about what happened and what you decide to do is your personal choice. But it breaks my heart to see the way some fans are treating the hard-working artists who dedicated years of their lives to bring you the best possible work they can with this film. It’s perfectly reasonable for anyone who worked on this project to be frustrated at this situation. The amount of effort and dedication it took to make this film happen speaks for itself in the final product and I’m sure a lot of you will agree. And even if you disagree with us, I hope that you can find it in yourself to still be respectful. To the fans and industry folks who have spoken out for us, thank you, you’re a big reason it was all worth it.”
Anna Gong, who also worked on the movie, said the leak “feels pretty awful.” “The only reason the movie looks so good is because there was so much passion directed toward making a truly special moment for ATLA,” Gong added. “Please support the actual release as well so we can make more movies <3”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
