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The newest film in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series was leaked months ahead of schedule, earning scorn from the film’s animators and some praise from fans unhappy with the way the franchise was being handled by Paramount Pictures.

The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender had longtime fans excited for its theatrical release on October 9 of this year when Paramount pulled the plug on the idea in December, opting instead to release the film exclusively on their streaming service Paramount+.

The animated film, which wrapped up production in March, was posted in its entirety on X in a now-removed post, according to IGN.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that the source of the leak is still unclear — whether it was a disgruntled employee at Nickelodeon or a hacker. The version of the film that was ultimately pirated across the internet was a high quality file, the publication reported, potentially indicating a breach of systems maintained by those that worked on the movie.

Fans, disgruntled with the studio for not screening the movie in cinemas, celebrated the leak. Ayesha, a Pakistani fan of the franchise, told Images she had rushed to download the film off X as soon as she heard about it.

She said pirating was the only way for her to watch the movie anyway as Paramount+ was not available in Pakistan. When asked if she’d have seen the film in theatres, she said she would still go to a screening even now, after having watched the leaked version.

The team behind the film did not share the enthusiasm, as animator Julia Schoel was quick to tell fans on X.

“We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that we’d get to celebrate all of our hard work in theatres… just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on Twitter like candy,” she said, adding that it would have been better if people pirated the film after it was released and had gotten its full marketing exposure.

Tessa Bright, the animation director at Flying Bark Studios — which was involved in making the film — quoted Schoel’s post, saying everyone was free to have their own opinions on the issue, “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.”

She said the effort put in by the animators was evident in the final product and hoped fans could find it in themselves to be respectful to the artists who were understandably frustrated.

Anna Gong, another artist who worked on the movie, said she felt “pretty awful” about the leak in response to a question on X.

She said, “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 hoped fans would support the film’s actual release so artists like her could continue to work on movies.