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Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series was a pivotal point in animation in the early 2000’s. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar was a bridge of American animation styles at the time with classic anime influences. It was one of Nickelodeon’s highest-rated and critically-acclaimed shows of all time. Now, Netflix and showrunner Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) are bringing the adventures of Aang and company their first live-action television series.
The first teaser for the show doesn’t show much, but symbols of each of the four different nations with a war drum increasingly getting faster and heavier as the symbols become more in tune with their respective elemental.
The path to get a live-action series was paved several years ago, but it finally went into production back in 2021. The first foray into live-action was the critically panned and globally loathed 2010 film by M. Night Shyamalan, and both DiMartino and Konietzko have reassured fans this adaptation for Netflix won’t be anything like that.
The story of Avatar: The Last Airbender centers around the long-lost titular Avatar, who can control water, earth, air, and fire, named Aang, and his journey to master the elements to stop the evil forces of Fire Lord Ozai, and the invading Fire Nation. Along his quest with the brother-sister team of Katara and Sokka, the show touched on themes about war, genocide, and colonialism as well as some deep philosophical questions surrounding fate and free will.
The series stars newcomer Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, fan-favorite casting Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai.
The 10-episode first season is scheduled to hit Netflix sometime in 2024.
