While Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbrender is obviously drawing heavily from its beloved source material, showrunner Albert Kim isn't afraid to make a few changes here and there.
We got a glimpse into how some of these changes might look in the new trailer that debuted on Tuesday, which IGN got the chance to break down with Kim and executive producer Jabbar Raisani (read/watch our full breakdown here). Among the many things we discussed with them was the quick look we got at Aang going into the Avatar State.
As fans know, the Avatar State is a mechanism for Avatars to connect to their past lives, drawing incredible power and wisdom from them. Or, as Kim puts it, it's "the ultimate power" in the world of Avatar. "And so we treated it very seriously," he says.
"In fact, we actually don't see Aang going into the Avatar State as much in our first season as they did in the animated series because we wanted to make sure that it felt very special," Kim adds. "We wanted to make it very clear that Aang could only access that state in a specific set of circumstances. We actually tweaked the rules a little bit from the original series as to when and how he can access that state."
We didn't learn more about specifically how the Avatar State will manifest in the live-action series, but that's likely treading into spoiler territory.
Speaking further about taking liberties with the source material, Kim says, "that's part of doing an adaptation like this."
"There are certain things that we are going to modify, we're going to change, and hopefully, fans will see that it's all for the good of the story as a whole and in dimensionalizing the story and bringing it from one medium to the other," he goes on.
We'll see the changes to the Avatar State and plenty else when Avatar: The Last Airbender debuts on Netflix on February 22, 2024. For more, check out the biggest shows coming out in 2024, as well as the lastest batch of images from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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.
