Netflix’s ‘Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker’ used this man’s photo about a murder case that ended in Philly. Now he’s suing.

Taylor Hazlewood said he found out his photo was in a Netflix documentary when his phone started blowing up.

“Explain please,” a friend texted him after seeing a photo of Hazlewood, now 27, in a true-crime film about Caleb “Kai” McGillvary, a viral hitchhiker who was arrested in Center City for the killing of a North Jersey man.

But Hazlewood, a respiratory therapist who lives in Kentucky, couldn’t explain. In a lawsuit filed April 10 against Netflix, Hazlewood says the streaming platform’s documentary, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, used his photograph without permission and harmed his reputation. He’s seeking at least $1 million in damages.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in a Dallas County court, Hazlewood says he has no connection to McGillvary, a man who gained internet fame after explaining how he intervened in an assault on a California utility worker using his hatchet in a 2012 TV interview. McGillvary is serving a 57-year prison sentence in Trenton for the murder of Joseph Galfy Jr., 73. McGillvary was convicted of killing the North Jersey lawyer in his home after they met in Times Square. He was apprehended at a Philadelphia bus station after being recognized.

Hazlewood didn’t know about McGillvary, the lawsuit says. Instead, a photo he posted on his Instagram more than 3½ years before the documentary’s debut, of himself posing with a hatchet, was inspired by his favorite childhood book, Hatchet. For years, visibility of the Instagram post was limited to a few hundred followers.

» READ MORE: Netflix’s ‘Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker’ hit the end of his wild ride in Philly

But in January, when Netflix’s Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker was released, he found out that the documentary repurposed the photograph, which appears alongside a narration about a “stone cold killer,” and the text, “you can never trust anyone.”

“Hazlewood is, of course, beyond angry that Netflix would implicate and connect him to such a salacious and infamous story and individual,” the lawsuit said, adding that he’s had to explain to friends, family, coworkers, and others that he has nothing to do with McGillvary or the documentary.

“Hazlewood’s reputation has clearly been tarnished,” the lawsuit said. “There are many acquaintances who will see Hazelwood’s photograph in the film and will assume the worst without contacting Hazelwood to get the truth.”

“That’s going to go on for the rest of his life,” Hazlewood’s attorney, Angela Buchanan, told the Washington Post. Netflix has not commented on the lawsuit.