Activision being sued over supposedly stealing the look for the Mara Operator

Activision, the publisher of the Call of Duty series, is the subject of a lawsuit that was filed in a California court on 2 February.

First discovered by Torrent Freak, the lawsuit alleges that Activision stole the look for the Mara Operator from writer and photographer Clayton Haugen. 

The photographer is claiming Activision knowingly and without his permission modelled Mara after one of his characters, Cade Janus. Coincidentally, both Mara and Janus use the same model, an Army veteran named Alex Zedra.

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Haugen claims he first used the model for his character Cade Janus in his short story, November Renaissance. The first photos from the shoot with model Alex Zedra were published in 2017 to various outlets, including his Instagram. 

The background for Cade Janus is that of a “female vigilante.” Janus was envisioned to separate November Renaissance from the large variety of science-fiction movies that have released over the past decade. According to Haugen’s lawyers, Activision liked the model of Janus so much that they used it to create Mara, an Operator that first debuted in Season One of Modern Warfare in 2019. 

(Picture: Clayton Haugen)

The lawsuit alleges that Activision hired the same photographers that shot Alex Zedra as Cade Janus in 2017. Also, Activision apparently hired the exact same makeup artist. The artist was then instructed to “prepare the talent exactly as she had done for Haugen’s Cade Janus photographs. They instructed her to style the talent’s hair exactly as she had done for Haugen’s Cade Janus photographs, even using the same hairpiece extension.”

Furthermore, there are claims that Activision and developer Infinity Ward made the hired talent sign non-disclosure agreements.

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Haugen also asserts that Activision never approached him about taking inspiration from the Cade Janus photos, which are extremely similar to promotional images used for Mara in Modern Warfare.

Activision has yet to comment on the lawsuit, and it’s unlikely they will. However, the lawsuit will not simply disappear, as there are some heavy claims being asserted toward the publishing company.