Judge Tosses ‘Yellowjackets’ Suit, Finding Show Didn’t Copy Film

A federal judge dismissed a copyright suit filed against the makers of the TV show “Yellowjackets,” finding the series isn’t substantially similar to a 2015 film “Eden” despite both works revolving around a soccer team stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash.

“Yellowjackets,” which is set in two timelines, didn’t copy the “survival” plotline from Eden Film Production LLC’s movie “Eden,” Judge Dean D. Pregerson said in an opinion granting a motion to dismiss in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

Eden Production sued the creators and distributors of the show, including Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. and Showtime Networks Inc., in November, alleging the show about a women’s soccer team marooned in Canadian wilderness after a plane crash copied a movie about a men’s soccer team stranded on a Pacific island. The defendants moved to dismiss the suit in January.

Pregerson, who was skeptical of Eden Production’s arguments at a hearing this month, said in his April 25 decision that an extrinsic analysis of objective elements of the two works—such as the plot, themes, dialogue, mood, and more—shows the works aren’t substantially similar. For example, “supposed parallels” in the works such as allusions to cannibalism, the suicide of a character, and the discovery of “prior inhabitants” in the show and movie don’t show substantial similarity, Pregerson said.

“There can be no serious dispute that escape attempts by shipwrecked or stranded survivors are prevalent throughout fiction and history, from Odysseus, Robinson Crusoe, and Gilligan to Shackleton and the Uruguayan rugby team,” Pregerson wrote. “Instances of competition, tribalism, and factionalism in disaster scenarios or in response to resource scarcity are nearly as commonplace, from ‘The Tempest’ to ‘Survivor’ to much of the post-apocalyptic genre, such as the ‘Mad Max’ films or any of a number of zombie stories, to, most archetypically, ‘Lord of the Flies.’”

Although both shows deal with “an examination of the darkness and potential for violence within all people,” Pregerson said, that is a common trope in the survival genre.

He denied Eden Production an opportunity to amend its complaint, saying the flaws in the copyright infringement allegations “stem from the fundamental characteristics of the works themselves” and not a pleading deficiency.

Attorneys for Eden Productions and the defendants didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Anya Fuchs LLC and Thompson Stam PLLC represent Eden Film Production LLC. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP represents the defendants.

The case is Eden Film Production LLC v. Lockjaw LLC, C.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-09851, opinion filed 4/25/25.