In recent development, the latest lawsuit heading to Epic Games is the Backpack Boy, Russel Horning, who is suing Epic Games for using his dance in the game without any permission or compensation later on.
Russel Horning or otherwise more commonly known as Backpack Boy became famous after his viral video went viral on Instagram when Rihanna shared the video on her Instagram back in 2016.
At that time, no one knew that his dance would become so viral that one day it would be featured in video games. His journey towards getting famous did not end at Rihanna’s video.
After the video went viral, Russel Horning got even more spotlight when he later performed at SNL with Katy Perry. He was at stage with her and performed his signature dance ‘The Russell’ with her.
This was reported by TMZ that since Russell is too young to file a suit himself, his mother has filled a lawsuit on his behalf. He is currently copywriting the dance move and the amount for which they have sued Epic Games is not currently made public.
Epic Games introduced ‘The Russell’ dance move as an emote in Fortnite in Season 2. At that time Fortnite had not gained so much traction but at this point, Fortnite is one of the biggest video games in the industry and it was also given Game of the Year Award for 2018 recently.
Earlier today, it was reported that Alfonzo Ribeiro from Fresh Prince is also suing Epic Games for using his famous Carlton dance in the game. Both lawsuits have emerged on the same date and it turns out that both cases are being handled by the same attorney David Hecht.
Before Russel and Alfonzo, rapper 2 Milly expressed his intention to sue Fortnite for using his Milly Rock dance and Scrubs Actor Donald Faison was not happy with Epic Games putting his Poison dance as the default dance in Fortnite without asking for his permission.
These dances are not exclusive to Fortnite. Some of these dances are also featured in Destiny 2 and the recently released Forza Horizon 4 as well.
If all these lawsuits are successful against Epic Games, other developers will also need to consider about either compensating the original artists or removing them from the game.
What do you think about all these actors suddenly voicing up against Epic Games for using their dance moves? Let us know in the comments section below!
