YouTube Premium Moving Forward With Logan Paul Movie After Controversy

Nearly a year after controversial YouTuber Logan Paul drew ire for his "suicide forest" video, YouTube Premium is moving forward with his previously-shelved movie, The Thinning: New World Order.

The film is a sequel to YouTube Premium's (formerly known as YouTube Red) dystopian thriller, 2016's The Thinning. Paul starred in the film, which is set in a dystopian future where, to combat overpopulation, students are subjected to a standardized test where if they fail they are executed. The Thinning was successful enough for YouTube to order a sequel.

However, the sequel was put on hold following Paul's controversial video. The video, in which Paul filmed the body of a suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest as well as used the deceased person's image as the video's thumbnail -- prompted YouTube to remove him from the Google Preferred ad program, fire him from the fourth season of the YouTube Premium series Foursome, as well as suspend all ads on his channel. Paul himself briefly stepped away from the video platform, though he has since returned to posting vlogs.

There had been no update about the fate of The Thinning: New World Order until late last week when the trailer for the film appeared on Paul's channel. Paul also shared the trailer on Twitter, writing "surprise" along with a devil emoji. The movie was made available to YouTube Premium subscribers on Wednesday.

While the film's release comes as a surprise, according to YouTube Paul is currently in good standing with the platform's policies. Additionally, a spokesperson for YouTube said (via Tubefilter) that they wanted to move forward on the film, in part, due to the other members of the cast and crew.

"The entire cast and crew worked extremely hard to complete this film last year," the spokesperson said. "In fairness to all of them and the fans who have been asking for the sequel, we decided to release The Thinning: New World Order."

The Thinning: New World Order stars Paul, Peyton List, YouTuber Lia Marie Johnson, and Calum Worthy. It was directed by Michael Gallagher who wrote the script with Steve Greene.

What do you think about YouTube going forward with Logan Paul's film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.