At Netflix they have been developing the adaptation of a very prolific fictional universe for five years: the production of Avatar: The last airbender, a live-action version of the contemporary animation classic created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. And, after one delay after another, we finally have the first promotional images of the series that will launch on the platform in 2024.
The images show the main representatives of the Fire Tribe: Paul Sun-Hyung as General Iroh, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko and Daniel Dae Kim, who had participated in the original version of Avatar, as Ozai.
For those who do not know this universe, it is derived from the children’s animated series broadcast in Spain (and available on Netflix) as Avatar: The Legend of Aang (2005-2008) which in turn had a youth sequel called The Legend of Korra (2012). -2014). It is set in a world where there are four nations: Water, Earth, Fire and Air, in which there are masters who dominate their element.
After the Fire Nation exterminates the air nomads, they are ready to dominate the entire world, taking advantage of the fact that no Avatar appears, a messianic figure who brings balance to the world and who has the power to control the four elements. But, when the new Avatar awakens, a young man from the air named Aang, he will have the mission to awaken hope on the planet and confront those who want to burn everything.
In 2010, Avatar already had its first adaptation: the film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the master of science fiction and horror, who tried to lead a title designed for the whole family. But, after receiving disastrous reviews and insufficient results at the box office, the film did not serve to launch a franchise and close Aang’s story. The television version written by Albert Kim also wants to resolve a pending issue: offer a diverse cast that does not try to whitewash any of the characters from the original series.
For fans of the reference, however, a fact about the development process that may not reassure them. Initially, when Netflix announced the project in 2018, the creators of the animated series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were involved in the project: they were going to be executive producers and showrunners. In theory they were supposed to shoot the series in 2019.
But, suddenly, in June 2020 they left Avatar: The Last Airbender and DiMartino revealed in a statement the reason: they did not feel supported by Netflix and, seeing that their vision was not respected, they preferred to dissociate themselves, even if this meant that the reimagining of their fictional universe would move forward without them. Then Albert Kim joined in his place, who has experience in television after having worked on series such as Leverage, Nikita or Sleepy Hollow.
DiMartino and Konietzko, after this experience with Netflix, created Avatar Studios: a production company from which to create fiction related to the universe that they themselves created. At the moment, they have three animated films in development and pending release.