Netflix hunting down leaker who shared advance pics and footage from Arcane, Squid Game, more

Also, Netflix itself reveals the title of the Squid Game season 2 premiere: "Bread and Lottery."

Courtesy: Netflix
Courtesy: Netflix | Squid Game

Earlier this year, someone calling themselves Jace Johnson (which is not their real name, as they admitted in an interview) leaked a bunch of footage and pictures from then-upcoming Netflix shows in what they called "the worst leak in streaming history." The leak included episodes from shows like Arcane, Heartstopper, and Terminator Zero. Now, the company is on the hunt to find exactly who the leaker is.

To that end, they've filed a subpoena in the United State District Court for the Northern District of Californiia in an attempt to get instant messaging platform Discord, where Johnson had an account, to reveal information about them. Documents filed along with the subpoena mention a copyrighted, unreleased image from the upcoming second season of Squid Game, Netflix's most popular show.

As Polygon points out, this isn't the same thing as Netflix filing a lawsuit; at this point, Netflix probably doesn't know who it would even file against, but it's trying to change that. Johnson had several social media accounts including at Discord under the name @jacejohns4n, all of which have either been deleted or suspended.

There have been lots of leaks of upcoming TV shows over the past few years, most of them down to human error like in this case. Obviously the studios hate it, but it remains to be seen if there's a reliable way to stop it. We'll see how far Netflix gets.

Title for the season 2 premiere of Squid Game revealed (officially)

Netflix itself has just revealed the title of the Squid Game season 2 premiere: "Bread and Lottery."

The first thing I think of when I hear that is the phrase "bread and circuses," a tactic they would use in ancient Rome to keep the masses occupied. Basically: if you give the people food and entertainment, they'll be distracted enough not to rise up against the corrupt ruling class. Squid Game, as you're probably aware, is about people so down on their luck and indebted that they're willing to put their lives on the line to play a series of deadly games against each other in hopes of winning a massive pile of prize money, all for the entertainment of the billionaires who have set this system up. There's probably something there.

The second season of Squid Game will drop on Netflix on December 26. A third season will wrap up the series next year.

UPDATE: A previous version of this story incorrectly cited Iyuno as the source of the leaked footage. We've since updated this story to reflect this.

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