Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Has Found Its Heroes
Netflix’s “authentic” live-action series is separate from Michael Dante DiMartino’s and Bryan Konietzko’s Nickelodeon work.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that many of us will have a childhood dream come true the day the live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” hits Netflix.
It’s been some time since we’ve heard the news about Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, but the streaming company is finally revealing details: namely, the cast for some major roles.
Netflix has announced not only that its new take on “The Last Airbender” is still in production, but revealed the core cast and creative team behind the series. In a statement about the show, showrunner Albert Kim (“Sleepy Hollow”) explained how he’d become a big fan of the franchise while watching it with his young daughter during its initial air on Nickelodeon.
By the time Kim wound up being approached by Netflix about the show, the “Avatar” franchise had already become a phenomenon with an infamously terrible adaptation to its name. Despite Kim’s hesitation about trying to bring bending to life again, he signed the contract.
The live-action adaptation was first announced in 2018 and ran into some trouble last year when “Avatar” creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko stepped away from the project citing creative differences with Netflix.
“I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded,” DiMartino wrote in a blog post at the time, adding that “Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good… 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.”
Kim posted a blog article about the process of creating what will be the second live-action take on the series, following M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 film. “The more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became,” Kim wrote.
“VFX technology has advanced to the point where a live-action version can not only faithfully translate what had been done in animation — it can bring a rich new visual dimension to a fantastic world.We’ll be able to see bending in a real and visceral way we’ve never seen before.”
The show will feature Gordon Cormier (“The Stand”) as Aang, Kiawentiio (“Beans”) as Katara, Ian Ousley (“13 Reasons Why”) as Sokka, and Dallas Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings”) as Zuko.
Netflix often shoots in different parts of the world, including Hungary, where Netflix’s “The Witcher”, “Shadow and Bone”, and “Barbarians” were filmed. With the recent growth of studios in Hungary, such as in Fót, we wouldn’t be surprised if the country also hosted more Netflix productions.
