A major leak of footage from Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender is making the rounds online, and it’s hard to see this as anything but damaging for everyone involved.

Over the weekend, clips and now reportedly the full film surfaced online months ahead of its planned Paramount+ debut. The movie, directed by Lauren Montgomery, was initially meant to get a theatrical run, but late last year it was pulled and redirected straight to Paramount+.

The material shared over the weekend reportedly includes key story moments and unfinished animation, although some say the full film is now online, with reports suggesting the leak may have originated from an internal error or security breach tied to Nickelodeon. One Twitter user claimed they were accidentally sent the full film in an email from Nickelodeon. That seems exceedingly unlikely, but it raises questions about how the film could have gotten out.

The leak is a major blow to an already unsettled studio. Since being purchased by Skydance, Paramount and its subsidiary Nickelodeon have been subject to massive layoffs; their long-time and well-respected head of animation, Ramsey Naito, left the company; and just last week, it was revealed that Nickelodeon Animation Studios would be folded more tightly into CBS Studios.

It’s concerning yet entirely unsurprising how normalized this kind of thing has become. Another Avatar film, James Cameron’s in this case, leaked in 2023, alongside The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The difference in those cases is that the films being leaked were already released in theaters. This time, a film months away from release has now been spoiled by a few bad actors.

High-profile leaks aren’t just spoilers, either. They disrupt the economic and creative ecosystem that keeps these kinds of projects getting made. When unfinished work circulates widely, it diminishes both the artistry and the labor behind it, and can cause serious issues for future titles.