Netflix has been sued for breach of contract by a company that developed a game based on Zack Snyder’s upcoming sci-fi film “Rebel Moon.”
In a lawsuit, Evil Genius Games said it worked with Netflix in early 2023 to develop a tabletop role-playing game based on “Rebel Moon,” with a delivery date coinciding with the streaming release of the first film on December 22, 2023. Evil Genius paid Netflix for a license with a profit-sharing agreement — but earlier this year, Netflix terminated the deal, saying Evil Genius had violated the confidentiality agreement for “Rebel Moon,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, seeks unspecified monetary damages. (Snyder is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.) A copy of the lawsuit is available at this link.
Netflix declined to comment.
“Our goal is to ensure our team is recognized for their fantastic work and we can release this game to millions of people [tabletop RPG] Fans will enjoy it,” Evil Genius CEO David Scott said in a statement. “It is disheartening to see Netflix backing down on content that was presented together and for which prior consent was obtained. We urge our supporters to contact Netflix and Zack Snyder to push for the release of this game.”
Part 1 of Snyder’s “Rebel Moon,” titled “A Child of Fire,” is scheduled to premiere on December 22nd, and part 2, titled “The Scargiver,” is scheduled to premiere on April 19, 2024. The film is about an enigmatic young woman (played by Sofia Boutella) who must search for fighters to fight an impending invasion by the despotic ruler Regent Balisarius (Fra Free).
Additionally, Netflix has inked a deal with San Mateo-based Super Evil Megacorp (Vainglory, Catalyst Black) to develop a four-player co-op action video game in the “Rebel Moon” universe, available exclusively to Netflix members will be. A release date for the title has not been announced.
Snyder said in a March 2023 podcast that a tabletop game based on “Rebel Moon” was in the works, “praising the work of the Evil Genius development team,” according to the gaming company.
Evil Genius agreed to pay Netflix an upfront license fee of $7,500, followed by payments of $7,500 by February 1, 2024 and $10,000 by February 1, 2025, as well as “the profits from the licensed items to share with Netflix”. says the lawsuit.
According to its lawsuit, Evil Genius halted other projects to focus on the Rebel Moon game. By May, Evil Genius said it had produced a 228-page World Bible (which significantly expanded the universe Snyder envisioned), a 430-page Player’s Handbook, and a 337-page Game Master’s Handbook. According to the lawsuit, the original script for “Rebel Moon” was missing “background information that is critical to the story as a whole and to the world,” and Evil Genius filled in “any missing pieces” along with “a coherent backstory for the story. “ entire Rebel Moon franchise.”
On May 25, 2023, Netflix terminated its agreement with Evil Genius on the grounds that Evil Genius had violated the confidentiality provisions of its contract by sharing artwork at an industry trade show a month earlier, the complaint says. In the lawsuit, Evil Genius said the termination came as a surprise because the company sent the artwork to Netflix before the event, the Game Manufacturers Association Exposition (GAMA), and Netflix agreed to its use. Documents containing the artwork were distributed to retailers at GAMA by Evil Genius employees and two Netflix employees, the lawsuit says.
Two weeks later, Netflix told Evil Genius that all work on the project “belongs solely to Netflix,” the lawsuit says. “It became clear that Netflix was simply using the alleged breach and termination to take over [Evil Genius’] intellectual property and prevent [Evil Genius] from the release of the game,” the lawsuit states.
Evil Genius Games, a Black-owned game publisher, was founded in 2021. Its flagship product is the &D-based Everyday Heroes, which it calls “the ultimate modern gaming platform.” The company sells games based on films such as “The Crow,” “Escape From New York,” “Highlander,” “Kong: Skull Island,” “Total Recall,” “Rambo,” “Pacific Rim” and “Universal Soldier.” based.