On December 15, 2025, law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of Eric Ryder, a former 3D animator and independent creator. The defendants include director James Cameron, his production company Lightstorm Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, and several Disney subsidiaries: 20th Century Studios, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, and Disney Streaming Services.
The complaint alleges that elements from Ryder’s science-fiction story KRZ (written in the late 1990s) were used without authorization in the 2022 blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to 2009’s Avatar. Ryder claims KRZ features anthropomorphic beings, an oceanic setting on a moon orbiting a gas giant, and a sinister Earth-based corporation conducting environmentally damaging mining operations.
According to the filing, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lightstorm collaborated extensively with Ryder to develop KRZ into a potential film project. The company ultimately canceled it, reportedly stating that audiences would not be interested in an environmentally themed sci-fi movie. Years later, Cameron and Lightstorm (with distribution through what was then Twentieth Century Fox, now a Disney subsidiary) released the original Avatar, which Ryder alleged also drew from KRZ. That earlier dispute resulted in a lawsuit where Cameron and Lightstorm prevailed.
The new complaint states that after Ryder refused multiple post-lawsuit offers from Cameron and Lightstorm to purchase the KRZ rights, the defendants incorporated protected elements from his work into The Way of Water. It reportedly includes side-by-side comparisons highlighting similarities in settings, plot devices, imagery, dialogue, and story arcs.
Ryder is seeking over $500 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages, and injunctive relief to halt further exploitation of The Way of Water and upcoming franchise installments, including Avatar: Fire and Ash, scheduled for release on December 19, 2025.
Daniel A. Saunders, a Kasowitz partner representing Ryder, described the alleged actions as “blatant and egregious,” emphasizing the direct matches between Ryder’s ideas (which he declined to sell) and elements in the film, which ranks as the third highest-grossing movie ever. “We look forward to proving the defendants’ liability in court,” Saunders said, adding interest in examining potential incorporation of Ryder’s ideas into the imminent sequel.
This marks a revival of a long-standing dispute. Ryder’s prior claims against the original Avatar—alleging breach of implied contract and fraud—were dismissed on summary judgment in 2013, with appeals upholding that Cameron independently created the film based on concepts he developed as early as 1995. Courts found no substantial similarity sufficient to infer use of Ryder’s material.
As of now, the defendants have not publicly responded to the new lawsuit, which comes just days before the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash. The case could draw renewed scrutiny to the origins of the lucrative Avatar franchise amid ongoing Hollywood debates over intellectual property and idea submission.
