Yellowjackets sued by 2015 movie Eden which alleges copyright theft

What’s more awkward than going through teen angst while trapped in the woods with your football teammates who may or may not eat you?

Being accused of theft.

Yellowjackets, the hit thriller streaming on Paramount+ and Netflix (but just the one season), has been accused of copying a 2015 movie called Eden.

A lawsuit has been filed in New York against Paramount-owned Showtime Networks and production outfit Lionsgate’s Entertainment One by Eden Film Production.

Yellowjackets debuted in 2021 and tells a story across two timelines. In the past, in 1996, a group of teen girls on their way to a football match when their plane crashes and the survivors are stranded for almost two years in the remote wilderness.

During that time, alliances and factions form, unlikely leaders emerge and the group resorts to cannibalism. The second timeline follows the lives of the survivors 25 years later when the trauma of their experiences haunts the adult women they’ve become.

In Eden, which starred Ethan Peck, Nate Parker and Sung Kang, the story is that of a men’s football team whose plane crashes on a remote island after a World Cup match and also features cannibalism.

The lawsuit against Yellowjackets, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, stated that: “In both works, the survivors, which include various players and the coach, among others, must fight for their lives against the harsh elements, starvation through dwindling resources and the psychological toll of isolation in the form of growing darkness within themselves.”

“As they struggle to survive, tensions rise, alliances form, dark secrets emerge, and moral boundaries are pushed to their limits – blurring the line between good and evil.”

The lawsuit said: “These substantially, strikingly similar elements leave little doubt that most substantive elements of Yellowjackets are copied from Eden.”

The creators of Yellowstone, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, have previously said that the show looked to the real-life survival story of a 1972 Andes flight crash which led to members of a rugby team turning to cannibalism to survive.

That event was made into the 1993 movie Alive starring Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton.

Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey, Ella Purnell, Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci. A third season is due to premiere in 2025.

The series was a critical success when it was released and went on to be nominated for a slew of awards including Emmy nods for Lynskey, Ricci and drama series.