When the first looks of Netflix’s live-action take on Avatar: The Last Airbender started rolling in, some fans of the original were surprised to see Azula, as well as other members of the Fire Nation like Lord Ozai, highlighted pretty prominently. After all, Azula (played by Elizabeth Yu in the Netflix version) just barely appears at the very end of Season 1 of the original, with Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) also playing a much bigger role later.
But their heightened roles in Season 1 are all part of the ways that showrunner Albert Kim and executive producer/director/VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani are remixing some of the storylines of their adaptation, they told me in a wide-ranging interview (which you can read here). And the decision isn’t just because Azula is such a beloved character, but also to deepen Zuko (Dallas Liu)’s story.
“We made the conscious decision to bring some of those Fire Nation storylines more to the fore in the first season because I felt like we needed to balance out the storylines,” Kim explained. “We needed to know more about the background for Zuko, and why he's doing what he's doing, and set that in the context of his family dynamic, and how he fits in with his father and sister.”
Kim added that those family dynamics are touched on later in the animated series, “but we had a little bit of a benefit of hindsight. We knew where that was going, so we could pull some of those elements upfront into the first season and make the first season a little bit richer and a little bit deeper in terms of character storylines.”
Part of that, Kim said, was also showing the audience certain scenes that were only explained, but never portrayed in the animated series – including one particularly crucial one for Zuko.
“There are certain scenes that you never saw in the original, whether it's the attack on the Southern Air Temple or the Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko,” he said. “And those are things that I knew we needed to see in order to make it feel much more grounded as a live-action show.”
Not to mention, highlighting more of the Fire Nation made the logistics of shooting Season 1 of an extremely travel-heavy, VFX-filled show just a tad bit easier.
"It gave us kind of some regular sets and environments that we could go back to in every episode, because our heroes are traveling from location to location every episode, but we can always go back to the Fire Nation throne room for a scene or two in each episode," Kim said. "And it gave us a little bit more stability in the storytelling."
It’s one of several changes Kim and Raisani are making to the source material. Throughout our interview, they spoke to the balance of honoring the original while bringing something new to the beloved material: “I've used the term that this is a remix, not a cover, in that you've got to hit a lot of familiar notes, but you can't forget that this is supposed to be a new song,” Kim said.
“It was about feeling [our] way throughout the process,” Kim said. “Where can we take the story into the new directions that still feels true to the spirit of the original? And that's what it all comes down to, making sure it feels like it was Avatar in spirit.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender hits Netflix on February 22, 2024. We spoke to Kim and Raisani as part of our jam-packed 2024 Fan Fest, and you can see a preview of the lineup for that right here.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
