Netflix has released a new trailer for its live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Avatar: The Last Airbender, which premieres globally on February 22, is a live-action reimagining of the beloved animated series following Aang, the young Avatar, as he learns to master the four elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Air) to restore balance to a world threatened by the terrifying Fire Nation.
YIP YIP! The Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer is HERE!
— Netflix (@netflix) January 23, 2024
?? Premiering February 22 ??️ pic.twitter.com/NLiU84ANAs
The series is made up of eight episodes, each an hour in length. It stars Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Ken Leung, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Daniel Dae Kim.
Last month, showrunner Albert Kim finally addressed the original creators walking away from the project in 2020. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kim said he felt intimidated to continue the show without original animated show creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino — who departed the live action project in 2020 after working on it for two years — and questioned whether he should do it altogether.
"You'd have to be an idiot not to be intimidated a little bit," Kim said. "My first reaction [to being offered the job] after 'hell yeah’ was ‘holy s**t. Do I really want to do this? Is there a way to improve upon the original?’ Whenever you tackle something that's already beloved by millions of fans, you have to ask yourself those questions."
Three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender originally aired on Nickelodeon and it is widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time. A sequel series The Legend of Korra arrived years later (alongside several comic books and novels), and Konietzko and DiMartino are currently developing more animated projects set in the same universe.
The live action series will conversely be an adaptation of the very first series of Avatar: The Last Airbender instead of a continuation, though Kim said they're changing some elements to retell the tale for a new generation.
"We don't start the show the way the animated series starts. That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series," Kim said. "We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama. So I'm very curious to see what'll happen in terms of reaction to that."
Konietzko and DiMartino said they left because "Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling" but "things did not go as we had hoped". They said the show had "the potential to be good" but "will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make".
The adaptation was announced way back in 2018 and is finally arriving February 22, 2024. It stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Zuko, and Paul Sun-Hyungas as Uncle Iroh . Netflix shared a first look Aang in friends in June 2023 before revealing the Fire Nation characters in October.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
