Since August 7, screenshots, excerpts and entire episodes of several highly anticipated series from Netflix and the anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll have been appearing on TikTok, X and other social media – sometimes months before their planned release. Among other things, five episodes of the second season of “Arcane” on Netflix and the third season of the British coming-of-age series “Heartstopper” were affected. Crunchyroll, among other things, leaked several episodes of “Dandadan”, episodes of “Ranma 1/2” and the premiere of the third season of “Re:Zero”. It is said that entire seasons are also in circulation, such as the entire “Terminator Zero” series, which was only scheduled to debut on Netflix in Germany on August 29. The anime “Mononoke” was also reportedly leaked in its entirety.
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In a statement to The Wrap A Netflix spokesperson said: “One of our post-production partners has been compromised and unfortunately footage from several of our titles has been leaked online. Our team is taking aggressive steps to remove it.” Crunchyroll also confirmed the incident to The Wrap: “We have launched an investigation to identify the source of this leak and our team is taking steps to remove it,” it said.
Incomplete versions
Over the past two days, more and more links to partially unfinished video content have been appearing on relevant sites. On the screenshots you can see timecodes and notes like “For internal use only” and “Property of Netflix”. According to reports from users of Reddit and X, various episodes still lack visual effects and sounds. These signs suggest that the attack has been carried out on post-production partners of the two streaming services, such as dubbing or effects studios.
Users complain about the leak and ask Netflix and Crunchyroll to release the series early to prevent a flood of spoilers. According to rumors, the content of the fifth season of “Stranger Things” may also be affected.
Many of the leaked episodes appear to be in an incomplete state, as evidenced by screenshots and video snippets on Xbox and other platforms.
(Image: X)
only in HBO was hit by a similar leak last week: Before the season finale of “House of the Dragon” aired, scenes from the first half of the highly anticipated episode circulated on social media. HBO blamed an international third-party provider for the inadvertent release.
Film studios are frequently the target of attacks
The attacks on Netflix and Crunchyroll are part of a series of attacks on film studios and production companies. Recently, Disney also fell victim to an attack: self-proclaimed “hacktivists” from the group “Nullbulz” claimed to have stolen 1.2 TB of internal Slack data, including unreleased projects, code and log-in data. Disney is currently investigating the matter. However, unlike Netflix and Crunchyroll, no Disney content such as films or series has been released so far.
(VJA)
