The new “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” film was leaked multiple times in early April. An initial short clip posted to Twitter on April 11 drew 30 million views, while thousands are estimated to have watched the entire film that was posted to Twitter on April 12.
Paramount launched an investigation into the leak according to Variety, determining that the leak did not come from within their studio.
According to an April 24, report from Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times, the hacker has now been arrested by authorities in Singapore, where they seized electronic devices that had a copy of the movie on them.
The animated movie, set to release Oct. 9 on Paramount+, is the second film in the “Avatar: The Last Airbender” franchise, alongside a live action Netflix show adaptation and two animated series. The movie cast big names such as former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, Oscar winning actor Ke Huy Quan and walk of fame star Dr. Ken Jeong.
The movie was initially planned for a theatrical release, however in December of 2025 Nickelodeon announced that they would be pulling the theatrical release in favor of releasing the movie on Paramount+.
“We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that’d we’d get to celebrate all of our hard work in theaters,” said animator Julia Schoel in an April 14 twitter post. “Just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on Twitter like candy.”
Many members of the fandom are less upset about the leak and more upset about the lack of a theatrical release. A change.org petition currently has more than 93,000 signatures to put the movie back into theaters.
Among the fans requesting a theatrical release for the film are 2005 show voice actresses Olivia Hack, who voiced Ty Lee, and Michaela Jill Murphy, who voiced Toph Beifong.
According to Collider, Hack admitted to “skimming” the film during a Supanova Melbourne.
“I’ve skimmed it. The art looks beautiful. Here’s my thing. If it was going to be the actual release, right, it’d be like, ‘don’t watch it, because it takes away from the box office.’ Paramount has my nickel. I already subscribed,” said Hack. “So I skimmed it, and the art looks gorgeous. And I haven’t watched it yet. Release it in theaters. That’s what I’m saying. And when you do watch it, you can see. I mean, it’s really spectacular. The artwork is gorgeous, and so, yeah.”
Both actresses stated that they would not be indulging themselves in the film until it releases in October.
Murphy took to TikTok on April 14, saying “If you wanna be respectful and if you want to know how I feel, stop sharing it, stop consuming it, stop talking about it, and watch it when it comes out.”
