A History of TV Episode Leaks: House of the Dragon, Mad Men, and More

Even in the age of digital piracy and torrent sites, major television leaks aren’t terribly common. However, when they do happen, they can be harder to contain, especially in a time where people are able to post entire movies on X (formerly Twitter). 

As hard as studios try to keep their intellectual property under wraps, sometimes there are still things that slip through the cracks. Whether released by hackers, network error, or some other unfortunate circumstance, here are some of the most disruptive TV episode leaks to happen in recent history.

House of the Dragon

Season 1 and 2 Finale

If I had a nickel for every House of the Dragon season finale that’s been leaked I’d only have two nickels, but it’s still wild that it’s happened twice. The finale for season 1 was reportedly leaked by one of HBO’s distribution partners in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa, ending up on illegal torrent sites before the episode was set to premiere. Clips even began to circulate on TikTok before the episode even aired. HBO released a statement after the fact that reads “We are aware that the tenth episode of House of the Dragon has been posted on illegal torrent sites. It appears to have originated from a distribution partner in the EMEA region. HBO is aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet. We’re disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, where it will stream exclusively in 4K.”

Similarly, the season 2 finale was found on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok the week before it aired after another leak from a third party international distributor. Episode 8 was originally not going to be made available to the press in early screeners, just as episode 10 of season 1 wasn’t, but after the leak, HBO changed course and granted press access. HBO released a similar statement in the aftermath that reads, “We are aware that clips from the House of the Dragon season finale have surfaced across social media platforms. The clips were posted after an unintentional release from an international third-party distributor. HBO is aggressively monitoring and removing clips from the internet, and fans can watch the episode in its entirety this Sunday night on HBO and Max.”

Hopefully HBO can figure out whatever the hell is going on with this distributor before the season 3 finale comes around, otherwise we might be dealing with this all over again.

Game of Thrones

Episodes of Seasons 5, 7, 8

Game of Thrones’ final seasons were so plagued by episode leaks that eventually HBO ceased to offer advanced screeners to the press. Season 5 had the first four episodes leaked onto torrent sites, reportedly copied from DVDs sent out to the press, though that wasn’t confirmed.

Season 7 had a couple of episodes leak due to both hackers and third party distributor error. The fourth episode of the season was leaked after a data breach occurred at Star India, HBO’s distributor for the country. Episode 6 leaked after it was accidentally posted early to HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms. Though unrelated to the Star India breach and the larger hack that HBO suffered in the U.S., the episode still made the rounds on Reddit, YouTube, and torrent sites before HBO realized their error and removed it.

Season 8 perhaps had the most consequential leaks of all Game of Thrones seasons. The first two episodes were accidentally posted online in full by DirecTV and Prime Video Germany, respectively, for a brief time, while episodes 3 and 4 had still pictures and clips from the episodes leak online, revealing the death of a major character.

Arcane

Unfinished Episodes from Season 2

A victim of Netflix’s most recent data breach, the second season of Arcane had unfinished episodes released online before its November premiere. This hack targeted one of Netflix’s post-production partners, which means that all of the work released is still in-progress and shouldn’t be considered the final cut by any means. Netflix released a statement to Variety soon after the leak occurred that reads “One of our post-production partners has been compromised and footage from several of our titles has unfortunately leaked online. Our team is aggressively taking action to have it taken down.”

Fans of Arcane have been encouraging each other not to watch or spread any of the leaked footage out of respect to the animators, artists, and creative team behind the show.

Netflix Anime/Crunchyroll

Various Projects

In addition to Arcane, episodes of Terminator Zero, Dandadan, Ranma ½ and other Netflix anime series have been released by the same group of hackers. Sony’s Crunchyroll anime studio was also a victim of the same attack, with hackers releasing the premiere episode of isekai anime Re: Zero.

Heartstopper

Unfinished Episodes from Season 3

After hackers stole data from Netflix, episodes from Heartstopper’s third season have been released online ahead of the series’ October premiere. As with Arcane, these episodes are still unfinished and have work to be done before being officially released. Fans have been generally upset by this, begging others to wait until the series is finished and released properly by Netflix before viewing and making judgments.

Stranger Things (Potentially)

Unfinished Episodes from Season 5

As part of Netflix’s most recent data breach, hackers have threatened to release the first three episodes of Stranger Things 5. Though it’s unlikely that enough footage has been cut together to resemble three full episodes, considering that the season is still in production, it’s still a threat that’s leaving fans on edge. 

Orange is the New Black

All of season 5

But these recent hacks aren’t the first time that Netflix has had content stolen and released by hackers. Back in 2017, the fifth season of Orange is the New Black was leaked in full online after Netflix refused to pay the ransom demanded by the hacker known as The Dark Overlord. This leak was part of a bigger network-spanning attack that also targeted FOX and ABC.

House of Cards

Season 3

This Netflix leak thankfully wasn’t due to hackers, but rather a technical error on the streamer’s part. Back in 2015, the third season of House of Cards was accidentally released on Netflix in full a whole two weeks ahead of its premiere. It was eventually caught, and the episodes taken back down until the scheduled premiere, but not before people noticed.

Mad Men

Season 3 Episode 2

In another example of network error, the second episode of Mad Men’s third season was accidentally released a week early on iTunes. AMC had each episode scheduled to be released for purchase on the website in line with the show’s weekly release on the network, but accidentally jumped the gun with this one, making it available for purchase for a brief time along with the season premiere.