Netflix Sued For A Second Time Over 'Outer Banks' Series

Netflix is being accused of stealing the premise for Outer Banks… again. An author is claiming the show is the plot of his novel.

The TV show is in its third season on the streaming platform and it’s been a hit for Netflix. Author Jeff Wilson is happy the show is doing well for Netflix but as the author of the novel he wrote titled, “Queen Anne's Revenge”, which he claims the show is ripped off from, it’s not so great.

Wilson is suing the streaming giant because he says there are a lot more than a few resemblances between the book and the show that stars Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Jonathan Daviss, and Rudy Pankow.

In his lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Wilson describes that his novel, published in 2013 follows four friends hunting for treasure based on a legend around their town near the outer banks of North Carolina.

Wilson is also claiming that his book had a little bit of success and was featured on Discovery and History Channel. And here is the kicker, Wilson claims that the show’s creators even admitted to using books from authors for inspiration to write the series.

Seems like he is insinuating that his novel could be one of the ones they drew inspiration from. Are there a lot of books that use the North Carolina Outer Banks as their backdrop? To further prove his point, Wilson says the story arcs in his novel are the same as the series.

He is also claiming a stake in the main characters being the same. According to TMZ he even goes as far as to say, the plot points and settings are very, very similar.

The streaming platform is not gonna have to go into litigation with Wilson who is suing for copyright infringement. He wants them to pay up anything they have made on the series and to cease any kind of distribution and promotion of Outer Banks.

Wilson isn’t the only author to claim that Netflix stole from them to make this fantastic role. Novelist, Kevin Wooten sued Netflix in 2020 and claimed that his book “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure!”.

The novel was written in 2016 and Wooten claimed the series ripped his story off big time. his novel is about a man who is on the hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure with is twin nephews and a dog.

To reiterate, Outer Banks is about four teenagers. The case was quickly thrown out in 2021 when U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. found the novel to not be the same at all. “To be sure, both works involve shipwrecks and treasure hunts,” Batten admitted in his judgment.

“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.” Wooten’s legal team maintains that is the case was heard in front of a jury, the outcome would have been different.

Now we will wait and see how this case turns out.