Avatar: The Way of Water Leaked on Torrent Sites, Piracy Networks Ahead of Release in India

Avatar: The Way of Water — the new James Cameron movie out Friday in India — has leaked onto torrent sites and other networks that enable piracy, in differing versions of quality and file size (from 600MB to 4GB). While most copies are arguably genuine, given the attached screenshots and user comments attesting to their legitimacy, some are fraudulent and merely exist as a trap to load viruses, malware, and whatnot onto the computers of unsuspecting individuals. But even with those genuine cases, the illegal copies of the second Avatar movie are of staggeringly poor quality and are likely to be filled with advertisements. Gadgets 360 does not condone illegal file-sharing. It is against the law and filmmakers deserve to be paid for the content they create.

The first legitimate leaked version of Avatar: The Way of Water showed up on torrent sites around 11am IST on Thursday, December 15, with the label “CAM” suggesting it was filmed with a video camera in cinemas. The second Avatar movie released Wednesday in Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden; Thursday in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, and Thailand; and is out Friday in India, the US, the UK, China, Japan, and around the world. According to comments and screenshots, the illegal rips of the second Avatar movie rips feature a permanent watermark for an online gambling and betting website. Those have been inserted digitally onto the leaked recording.

Thankfully for Disney, 20th Century Studios, and the Avatar: The Way of Water cast and crew, the quality of the cam-recorded illegal Avatar 2 rips is downright terrible. Per publicly available screenshots, Gadgets 360 can tell that they exhibit severe issues with sharpness, detail, contrast, cropping, and/ or colour. We won’t be posting any screenshots to avoid spoiling any part of the film. Gadgets 360 has not been able to verify audio quality, though user comments suggest that it’s echo-y, muffled, and hard to hear. The Avatar 2 full movie leaks only reinforce the fact that you should check out the movie when it’s officially available in theatres where you live.

Directed by Cameron, off a screenplay he co-wrote with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Avatar: The Way of Water stars Sam Worthington as former human Marine and now Na’vi Omaticaya clan chief Jake Sully, Zoe Saldaña as expert archer and Jake’s mate Neytiri, Sigourney Weaver as their adopted teenage daughter Kiri, Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch who returns from the dead as an Avatar with human memories, Kate Winslet as Ronal of the Metkayina clan, and Cliff Curtis as Metkayina clan chief and Ronal’s husband Tonowari.

There are roles in the second Avatar movie for CCH Pounder as Omaticaya’s spiritual leader Mo’at, Jamie Flatters as Jake and Neytiri’s firstborn Neteyam, Britain Dalton as their middle child Lo’ak, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss as their youngest Tuk, Bailey Bass as Ronal and Tonowari’s daughter Tsireya, Filip Geljo as their son Aonung, Duane Evans Jr. as Metkayina male hunter Rotxo, Matt Gerald as Quaritch’s second-in-command Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, and Jack Champion as teenage boy Miles “Spider” Socorro who lives with the Sullys.

Additionally, Avatar: The Way of Water also features Joel David Moore as Avatar Program member Dr. Norm Spellman, Dileep Rao as Avatar Program scientist Dr. Max Patel, Edie Falco as Pandora’s new human base commander-in-charge General Frances Ardmore, Brendan Cowell as marine hunter chief Captain Mick Scoresby, and Jemaine Clement as marine biologist Dr. Ian Garvin.

Avatar: The Way of Water is out Friday, December 16 in cinemas in India in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.