A federal judge threw out animator Eric Ryder’s copyright claim that James Cameron and Disney copied his KRZ story for The Way of Water and Fire and Ash, saying the works aren’t substantially similar.
James Cameron and Disney just won another round in a fight over where Avatar came from.
U.S. District Judge George H. Wu threw out animator Eric Ryder‘s copyright claim over Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash, Reuters reported Oct. 5. The ruling is dated Oct. 1, according to Law Commentary.
The case, Ryder v. Cameron, was in federal court in Los Angeles. Ryder sued Cameron, his company Lightstorm Entertainment and several Disney companies.
What did the Avatar sequels lawsuit claim?
Ryder, a 3D animator, said he developed a science fiction story called KRZ in the early 2000s while working with Lightstorm on a possible film project.
His complaint, filed last December, pointed to things he said the sequels borrowed: human-like alien beings, huge ocean settings and an Earth corporation running environmentally destructive mining on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.
The ocean part is easy to picture. The Way of Water (2022) moved much of the story to the sea, with the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan.
He wanted at least $500 million in damages, Law Commentary reported. At first, he also asked the court to block the release of Fire and Ash, which came out anyway in December 2025.
Why did the judge dismiss the Avatar lawsuit?
Copyright covers the specific way a story is told, and general ideas are free for anyone to use.
Wu found that the overlap Ryder pointed to was mostly general ideas and familiar sci-fi territory, like environmental destruction, corporate greed and underwater technology. Some of it was already in Cameron’s earlier Avatar material, and some was expressed in different ways, according to Law Commentary.
“KRZ and the Avatar sequels share certain general features, but are not substantially similar,” Wu wrote, as quoted by Reuters.
For the purposes of the ruling, Wu assumed Ryder had shown that Cameron’s team had access to KRZ. It didn’t matter, because the works weren’t similar enough.
Is the Avatar lawsuit over?
Not completely.
Wu had already dismissed the copyright claim once and given Ryder a chance to fix it. Ryder chose to stand on what he’d filed, so the court entered a final dismissal of that claim. He can still appeal to the Ninth Circuit.
Ryder also brought state-law claims, including breach of contract, breach of confidence and unfair competition. Wu dismissed those without prejudice after declining to keep them in federal court, which means Ryder can take them to state court.
Representatives for Ryder and Disney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
Has Eric Ryder sued over Avatar before?
Yes. This is round two.
Ryder sued in California state court in 2011, claiming the original 2009 Avatar borrowed from his work. He lost in 2014, and an appeals court upheld that loss in 2016.
Here’s the trailer for Fire and Ash, the newest film named in the suit.
Did Avatar lose its box office record too?
Yes, a few days later. On Oct. 4, Avengers: Endgame passed the original Avatar as the highest-grossing movie ever, at about $2.925 billion to Avatar’s roughly $2.92 billion, Variety reported. The Endgame Encore re-release did it.
That’s the second time Endgame has taken the crown from Avatar. Cameron’s movie grabbed it back once already, with a 2021 re-release in China.
So Cameron is down one record this month and up one court win. Pandora’s doing fine.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Reuters (Oct. 5, 2026) via Laughing Place (Oct. 6, 2026), the dismissal, the case, the claims and Judge Wu’s quote
Law Commentary (Oct. 6, 2026), the Oct. 1 ruling date, damages sought, the reasoning and the state-law claims
Variety via Pirates & Princesses (Oct. 4, 2026), Endgame passing Avatar at the box office
Avatar (YouTube), the Fire and Ash trailer
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