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Netflix is giving Avatar: The Last Airbender another shot at live-action glory. The streaming service on Tuesday shared concept art (pictured above) for what it’s calling “a reimagined, live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series” based on the beloved animated show about a young hero blessed with the power to manipulate the element of air. Original series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino will return as showrunners.
“We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender” Konietzko and DiMartino said in a statement. “We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.”
Avatar ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon (2005–2008), winning a handful of accolades along the way, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2007. Its popularity led to the creation of The Legend of Korra, a spinoff series about the reincarnated form of the original show’s protagonist. Korra also found a great deal of success on Nickelodeon, airing for four seasons (2012–2014) and earning plenty of praise, including a Daytime Emmy Award in 2013. (Korra was also recently featured in TVLine’s ranking of the 10 most satisfying LGBT+ reveals in animation.)
If the idea of a live-action version of the Airbender story sounds familiar to you, that’s because Paramount Pictures attempted to turn the series into a film franchise in 2010, written and directed by twist master M. Night Shyamalan. Despite performing decently at the box office, the film was not exactly beloved by fans and critics. In fact, Konietzko and DiMartino — whose input on the film was not accepted — have gone so far as to say they wish the movie didn’t exist.
Your thoughts on Avatar‘s live-action redemption? Drop ’em in a comment below.
If the original showrunners are onboard and they’re smart about pacing it out (unless it’s going to be an episode for episode remake) I think there’s a good chance it’ll be really well done
With the Netflix model the show will probably be a lot more serialized than it’s animated counterpart. I think Netflix might be going for the GoT crowd with this one so it’ll probably follow a more prestige model.
What I’m most excited about is another opportunity to figure out what happened with Zuko’s mom.
I kind of wish instead of essentially remaking Aang’s story, they should do a live action series of the Avatar after Korra
Yes! This
Eh. Honestly, Korra was too far in the future for me technologically. Even further in the future? I’m not particularly interested. I’d be more into seeing an earlier Avatar like Kyoshi. But a remake of the first series will be okay if done right.
Agreed about the tech would much rather prefer to see an earlier Avatar like Kyoshi or Roku.
I’m not sure about this. The movie that doesn’t exist still has me messed up you guys.
I love that Bryan and Michael are involved though.
But if it’s just going to be a shot for shot remake, I’ll just watch the original.
They better not to mess up with my Zuko!
This sounds amazing
Just finished watching The Dragon Prince on Netflix, from Avatar head writer/co-EP Aaron Ehasz, and it is great.
With this reboot, I’m curious to see how much of the charm of those original characters came from him, and how much came from the creators.
Now this should be good. With the original showrunners running things, I trust that the story will be faithfully adapted.
I was extremely disappointed there was not a sequel to the movie. I wish someone would just complete the movie with real ppl not animated.
We were all very sorry to hear about your brain injury….
I am kinda disapointed about it too. The film is the nr.1 film that should not be, but maybe they would have “learned” from their mistakes in part 2 and 3. Being discontinued feels like an even greater slap in the face. Because now we can only assume it might have been bad, but we wont know for sure, so there is a small chance it might have been good actually.
Three words… OH HECK NO! Avatar was awesome and should be left alone. If they wanted to expand the story they should go with the next avatar after Korra. Tell something new instead of taking something that’s already been told and completely destroy it.
The original animated series has SO MUCH significance to live up to. The clever thing would be to have the LA series be set in the same universe but NOT a direct adaptation of the show.
Well as series with multiple episodes it might stay truer to the original serie.
My personal preference would be for them to just re-issue the original series with same original soundtrack and voice actors, but with updated animation. I.e replace the 2 dimensional drawings with 3d life-like anime like “Shrek” or “How to train your dragons”.
With the progress in CGi, that would be awesome.
“about a young hero blessed with the power to manipulate the element of air”
The whole plot is that he can do all four elements, but ok. LOL!!
The concept art is awesome, but do they really have the budget to do such a thing?!
This is Netflix. Their whole business model is just dumping ridiculous piles of money on popular creators and waiting to see what happens.
Wasn’t the film criticized for not having an Asian actor in the lead? I never saw the film and recently got around to finishing the series. I’ve yet to see Korra. I had also thought that the original series was to have a fourth season – i.e. four books – but Nick canceled it despite popularity and/or ratings. At least they got to sort of end it.
Yes, the movie was criticized for not having asian actors in it. Ignore the film, it was really really bad and ignored everything that makes Avatar great.
The original series was always designed as 3 seasons / books. It wasn’t cancelled early or anything. Though Nick did treat Korra poorly (didn’t sell enough toys for them), they still green lighted 4 seasons / books of it. So it wasn’t all bad what they did.
Thank you. I guess it was assumed that because there were four elements there would be at least a season for each. When canceled, I had thought people complaining was partly because it wasn’t finished. As I had not seen the last season to season and a half, I did not know how it finished. My main problem with watching was Nick seemingly bouncing the show all over the place, so I lost track of it.
With the original showrunners on board, I’m so excited for this!
I think it’s great that the original series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino will return as showrunners for this live adaptation, but I would rahter see a new Avatar story.
As long as they pronounce Aang’s name correctly.
Not gonna lie. When I saw the headline, I cringed. I’m still scarred by the movie. Why they sucked out all the humor and heart is beyond me. But seeing that the original creators are going to be running things? And it’s going to be cast appropriately? I won’t go so far as to say ‘excited.’ Cautiously optimistic is probably more accurate. Please do this right, all involved.
The real question is, are TLA and TLOK coming to US Netflix?
I would imagine so, eventually.
Having the original creators involved makes this worthwhile. I never understood how Shyamalan (who claimed to be a big fan of the series) could have butchered the movie so badly. This guy seriously thought people would be ok with him changing the way the lead character’s name was pronounced…among other things. I hope this new series can help erase the memory of that movie altogether. And if it’s successful I would gladly watch an adaptation of Korra and further continuations.
Oh…..wow! I cant wait. Loved the series and the development of the characters and the world of theAvatar, as long as they get the fluidity of the bending, stick closely to the original and still have that fun factor with a bit of realistic emotion then it will be amazing, and the whitewash abolishment is a fantastic idea!!!
At the end of the Original they had an open ending(where’s Zuko’s mom; we still do not know). Korra used the original characters but badly.
I Always hoped for a second Avatar when Aang was older; and not as old in Korra.
Korra was too boring and PC(LGBTQ) to be liked.
So take out the DVD of the originals and binge them; instead of this rehash; I might change my mind if they plot out some answers to questions like; where’s Zuko’s mum; and what will his sister Azula do in the future.
The biggest problem with trying to re-do the cartoon is that everyone knows how it goes and how it ends. This isn’t like a comic or novel adaptation since there’s a lot more room for variation in those and not everyone has read (or seen) the original story.