Pack it up, Pogues! An author filed a copyright claim against Netflix over Outer Banks.
According to TMZ, Jeff Wilson, author of Queen Anne’s Revenge and Oklahoma Ghost Dance, is suing the streaming giant for similarities between his debut novel and the hit teen series.
Wilson’s Queen Anne’s Revenge was released in 2013 and follows four friends as they embark on a hunt for lost treasure on the coast of North Carolina after archaeologists located artifacts from a crashed pirate ship.
The author alleges that the core cast and their character arcs, plot points, and various settings in Outer Banks have an uncanny resemblance to his novel.
Wilson states that his book was promoted by Discovery and History Channel and cited that Outer Banks co-creators, Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Daniel Burk, were inspired by books to write the series.
Per News Observer, the co-creators told the Wilmington Star-News that the series was inspired by “third-party adventure novels,” along with their experience living in Wilmington.
If Wilson wins the lawsuit, Netflix will have to give him any profits made from Outer Banks and the streamer will no longer be able to distribute the series.
In 2021, the Netflix series was hit with another lawsuit after author Kevin Wooten sued Netflix and the Outer Banks co-creators over a similar claim. The North Carolina teacher stated that the series copied his 2016 novel Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure. The suit was dismissed after a judge couldn’t find substantial evidence to Wooten’s claim.
News Observer reported that Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. said, “To be sure, both works involve shipwrecks and treasure hunts. But to analyze their plots at such a high level of abstraction would render every work involving a hunt for buried treasure susceptible to copyright infringement.”
Outer Banks, starring Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline, released its third season last month after its successful debut on the streamer in 2020. The show has garnered a fervent fanbase who call themselves pogues, in reference to the show’s nickname for the working class locals from The Cut, where the show partially takes place.
Decider’s Kayla Cobb has argued that the series is a “perfect show.” She wrote, “As ridiculous as Outer Banks gleefully is, there’s an honesty to it. Being a teenager is one of the most stressful periods of people’s lives. The emotions are big, and the stakes feel huge, and that’s what ridiculous teen dramas capture.”
Netflix has yet to comment on the current lawsuit against Outer Banks.
