Evil Genius Games Sues Netflix Over 'Rebel Moon' Roleplaying Game

Evil Genius Games--creators of the d20 Modern-inspired Everyday Heroes RPG, with its licensed settings such as The Crow, KingL Skull Island, Pacific Rim, Highlander, and more--was all set to release a tabletop RPG based on Zack Snyder's upcoming movie Rebel Moon until the contract was cancelled by the streaming company over alleged confidentiality breaches. Evil Genius is suing Netflix for breach of contract.

Rebel Moon, which comes out later this year, is a space opera movie featuring a peaceful moon defending itself against tyrannical invaders.

The contract was cancelled back in May 2023, at which point Evil Genius had nearly completed the TTRPG design, with the Player's Guide and GM's Guide fully written and a 'world bible' for the setting created; the latter is an internal developer tool, which other franchises use also.

The termination is based on alleged confidentiality breaches. In addition, Netflix has asserted ownership of the world bible, which constitutes significant work undertaken by Evil Genius. The streaming company did offer to pay for that work--to the tune of $50,000--but Evil Genius did not accept that offer.

Snyder has also indicated that the contents of the world bible would be incorporated into future cinematic and video game properties.

Gizmodo spoke to Evil Genius and has more information. Additionally, Evil Genius has put up a web page about the situation.

I've since received an email from Evil Genius, and they have made a press release:

LOS ANGELES – (Sept. 28, 2023) – Evil Genius Games today sued Netflix for wrongfully terminating Evil Genius’ contract to create a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) for the widely anticipated Rebel Moon film franchise by Zack Snyder. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.

Snyder, the acclaimed director of action and science fiction films, revealed in a podcast in March 2023 that a TTRPG based on Rebel Moon was in the works, lauding the work of Evil Genius’ team of creators.

Evil Genius began working with Netflix in early 2023 and signed an official agreement with Netflix on March 22, 2023, to develop the game and related materials, promising a delivery date to coincide with the film’s release on December 22, 2023. Evil Genius paid Netflix for a license, with an agreement to share profits.

Evil Genius stopped other projects to focus on the Rebel Moon TTRPG, the lawsuit states. By May, Evil Genius had produced a 228-page World Bible (which vastly expanded on the universe envisioned by Snyder), a 430-page Player’s Guide and a 337-page Game Master’s Guide. The initial script for Rebel Moon was “missing background information vital to the story as a whole and to the world,” the lawsuit states, with Evil Genius supplying “all the missing pieces” along with “a cohesive backstory for the entire Rebel Moon franchise.” According to the lawsuit, “the speed at which the project came to fruition astounded Netflix executives, and [Evil Genius] exceeded everyone’s expectations.”

Later that month, on May 25, Netflix suddenly terminated the agreement with Evil Genius, claiming the company had violated confidentiality provisions in its contract by sharing artwork at an industry trade show one month earlier. In the lawsuit, Evil Genius said the termination came as a surprise because it had sent the artwork to Netflix in advance of the event, the Game Manufacturers Association Exposition (GAMA), and Netflix had approved its use. Documents containing the artwork were handed out to retailers at GAMA by Evil Genius’ staff and two Netflix employees.

Two weeks later, Netflix notified Evil Genius that all of its work on the project “belongs solely and exclusively to Netflix,’’ the lawsuit states, with Netflix refusing to honor its agreement with Evil Genius to allow the release of the game and compensate the company for its work.

“It became clear’’ the lawsuit alleges, “that Netflix was simply using the alleged breach and termination to hijack [Evil Genius’] intellectual property and prevent [Evil Genius] from releasing the game.’’

David Scott, Evil Genius’ CEO said the decision to file a lawsuit was not made lightly.

“Our aim is to ensure our team is recognized for their fantastic work, and that we can release this game for millions of TTRPG enthusiasts to enjoy,’’ Scott said. “It’s disheartening to see Netflix backpedal on content that was jointly showcased and had received their prior consent. We urge our supporters to contact Netflix and Zack Snyder to push for the release of this game.’’

Evil Genius is encouraging supporters to visit Evil Genius Games, where they can sign a petition asking Netflix to acknowledge the creators of the Rebel Moon World Bible and allow Evil Genius to release the tabletop role-playing game.

 

[Gradine]

Sucker Punch -- tale about women facing power structures from someone who seemingly understands neither.

 

[corporat]

They wrote it and filled in gaps from the script.

Is the world bible a Word document? A Google doc? A wiki site? A Notion site? Obsidian?

That's what I meant

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Sucker Punch -- tale about women facing power structures from someone who seemingly understands neither.

....perfect. No notes.

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, that's EGG's version of the story. If you read the filing, it's more complicated than that. What this article doesn't mention, but is mentioned in the Gizmodo article, is that EGG accidentally posted supposedly non-approved* stuff to their website that ended up being shared on social media. EGG's CEO's attitude towards the breach apparently pissed off the folks at Netflix, who decided that it was the straw that broke the camel's back, and terminated the license.

EGG declined the initial offering, which admittedly was insultingly low (it was double their initial licensing fee), and is suing instead. Also, they're clearly banking on creating a stir like the OGL scandal to leverage things in their favour. The fact that they're leaving out details makes me wary of them, though. Both sides, really. I signed the petition, but I've learned things, separate from this story, about the publisher since that make me regret doing so.

*Netflix says non-approved, EGG says it was the same stuff that they approved for GAMA. That said, approved for GAMA doesn't automatically mean approved for the website.

Thanks for the Gizmodo link, but it doesn't really seem to change much, IMO.

All of the listed possible breaches seem incredibly minor.

Without more information, Occam's Razor suggests the giant, soulless corporation with a habit of screwing over creatives in favor of Hollywood accounting is in the wrong here.

 

[Dire Bare]

Mind you, I haven't seen all of Snyder's work*, but my understanding of critiques against him was more along the lines that he is a hack who falls back on a handful of visual tropes and techniques in all his movies and often doesn't really understand the IPs or very concepts his work is covering/exploring, not that he borrows from others. Is this a thing he does?
*I believe I have seen (/+ response to each):
Dawn of the Dead -- high production value zombie movie
300 -- Horrible understanding of history; mildly imperfect understanding of Miller's comic series. Perfect understanding of what 13 year old boys want manliness to be about.
Watchmen -- visually interesting movie that wildly misunderstands the source material, but does tell an interesting tale about manipulating the masses.
Sucker Punch -- tale about women facing power structures from someone who seemingly understands neither.
Man of Steel -- About 20 years to late for "I'm going to deconstruct the superhero genre" to seem fresh. Can't say he doesn't understand the source material since he's clearly trying to subvert parts of it, but also can't say he was successful.
Suicide Squad -- Fine. Not good, but not horrible. Somehow made Captain Boomerang one of the more interesting characters (props to Jai Courtney on this one, as he and Will Smith seemed to be the only people putting their all into their roles). Shared the issue with most of DCEU in that the stakes/villain are uninspiring.
Snyder cut Justice League -- better than the Whedon cut (IRL issues aside, Whedon's canned snark-humor just doesn't mesh with this narrative). My high school English (so writing) teachers would all tell him that fitting your story concisely into the space your audience expects for your medium (short story vs novel, movie vs miniseries, etc.) is a skill and that if you need 242 minutes to tell your tale without killing your darlings (favorite lines or scenes), then you have failed to do your job as a writer.

I mean, whose minds are going to be changed? Are there people out there that don't already think that Netflicks is a toxic company that mistreats their customers, show-makers, and employees? Seems people have thought that for at least a decade and yet people still keep their subscriptions renewing (mostly).

Fandom likes to bag on Synder and his films. Yet, he keeps getting work.

Because his films are good. Yeah, I said it!

I mean, they're not masterpieces. But they are enjoyable and visually interesting. I can't list any of Synder's films as being in my top faves, but I've enjoyed all of them on their own merits so far. Not perfect films. Flawed in various ways, certainly. But enjoyable and visually unique.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Fandom likes to bag on Synder and his films. Yet, he keeps getting work.

I don't think that this is fully accurate. "Fandom" likes to dunk on Snyder ... partly because of his work, but also partly because of the incredibly toxic Snyder fanbase.

It's similar to a lot of fandoms; it's not even the work, so much, as the toxicity of some of the community that makes you want to dunk on it.

Because his films are good. Yeah, I said it!

I mean, they're not masterpieces. But they are enjoyable and visually interesting. I can't list any of Synder's films as being in my top faves, but I've enjoyed all of them on their own merits so far. Not perfect films. Flawed in various ways, certainly. But enjoyable and visually unique.

On a serious note, Snyder is a competent director. I would say that all of the following are true-

1. He is easy to make fun of because he seemingly learned one trick, and has decided to run it into the ground. That said, other people would more charitably refer to that as having a distinctive visual style; I love Wes Anderson (for example), but I could certainly understand if someone said, "Wes Anderson looks at a scene, and thinks, 'Sure, but how can I make this more twee and more symmetrical?'"

2. He is also not great with understanding the deeper themes of what he is doing, and for that reason, there is often a tonal mismatch between (a) the source material and what he chooses to present, and (b) the themes he is presenting and his visual style.

All that said, most directors would kill for a 10% of the success that he has had, and most also lack the talent to film the effect-laden spectacles that he does ... which is not easy.

TLDR; he's not as bad as a lot of people make fun of him for, but he's also not a great director, either. I would argue that his best movie reamains Dawn of the Dead, and that while Watchmen wasn't a great film, it was a good film and it was a perfectly adequate attempt to film a very difficult-to-adapt work and showed that he loved, if not necessarily fully understood, the source material.

 

[MGibster]

Even if Netflix wins in the trials, it would be a serious damage to the prestige of the company.

In what way? Even most people who play role playing games don't follow what's going on with the publishers that closely. And most people who aren't gamers aren't even going to hear about this.

 

[Jer]

Without more information, Occam's Razor suggests the giant, soulless corporation with a habit of screwing over creatives in favor of Hollywood accounting is in the wrong here.

See I read this (from the complaint):

Netflix even conceded that it “probably could have looked past” the incidentwere it not for certain individuals disliking Mr. Scott’s tone and response to Netflix’s concerns over confidentiality. Netflix felt like Mr. Scott did not take the issue seriously, which caused Netflix to supposedly “lose trust” in Plaintiff overnight, and go back to the contract to look for a way out of the Agreement. In other words, Netflix did not genuinely believe Plaintiff materially breached the Agreement. Netflix was simply upset with Mr. Scott and used this turn of events as pretext to terminate the Agreement, take Plaintiff’s intellectual property, and prevent Plaintiff from obtaining the benefit of the bargain.

And to me it starts to sound like it might be a personal beef between execs that escalated into some nonsense.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

It would be a great damage for the prestige of the company, at least for the publishers who thought the idea of a partership deal for a licence. And today players are more informed about this type of things than decades ago.

 

[aramis erak]

You're right - I had it backwards. The way I read the story I thought that Netflix paid EG to create a TTRPG and was letting them have a stream of money in addition to the original outlay. But it's the other way around and a more traditional licensing arrangement - EG paid Netflix for the right to create and sell a TTRPG.

This only raises further questions as far as I'm concerned.

Most movie and TV licensees are published with the studio owning the IP...
Some go so far as to demand total copyright - Paramount, especially.
Others allow a dual copyright, provided that it mentions the game system being copyrighted separately. This usually is only in standalone cores of an existing system.
A few are not.... but they're outliers.