The beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender is coming to life in a new way on Netflix.
The original Nickelodeon series was cocreated by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and ran for three seasons from 2005 to 2008. Avatar followed the journey of Aang (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen), an “Avatar” who can master (a.k.a. “bend”) the use of all four elements. Guided by sibling duo Katara (Mae Whitman) and Sokka (Jack De Sena), Aang sets off on a quest to master his skills in order to reunite the Water, Earth, Fire and Air nations.
The show — which garnered a 2012 spinoff, The Legend of Korra — previously received the movie treatment with 2010’s The Last Airbender, which starred Noah Ringer as Aang, Nicola Peltz Beckham as Katara, Jackson Rathbone as Sokka and Dev Patel as the group’s nemesis, fire bender Zuko. The film was panned by critics and fans alike, sitting at a five percent score on Rotten Tomatoes as of June 2023.
Netflix announced plans to adapt the series into live-action in September 2018. While DiMartino and Konietzko were initially on board as executive producers and showrunners, the duo announced in August 2020 that they had decided to part ways with the streamer’s adaptation.
“In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series,” DiMartino explained in a blog post at the time. “And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.”
DiMartino noted that they made the decision after encountering production challenges and “unforeseen events,” he added that they knew it was time to “move on.”
The writer continued: “And who knows? Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good. It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.”
In August 2021, Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley and Dallas Liu were cast as Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko, respectively. Three months later, Daniel Dae Kim joined the cast as Zuko’s father and the leader of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Ozai.
Other notable cast members include George Takei as the voice of Koh, Utkarsh Ambudkar as King Bumi, Danny Pudi as the mechanist and Arden Cho as June, among many others.
Netflix unveiled its first look at the highly anticipated series during its 2023 Tudum event. In addition to photos of the show’s four leads and the series title card, the streamer revealed the show will premiere in 2024.
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