A new Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is coming soon! Here’s all you need to know about Aang’s new live-action adventure.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a beloved animated fantasy series produced by Nickelodeon back in 2005, then everything changed when Netflix attached… themselves to the show. Almost two decades later, the biggest streaming service in the world is reimagining the Avatar world with an eight-part, live-action walk down nostalgia lane. The elephant – or flying bison – in the room remains: will it fall closer to the wholesome coming-of-age animated series, or to the 2010 M. Night Shyamalan blockbuster flop? Let’s take a look at all you need to know about Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024).
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Every Element of the Show You Need to Know
What is Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) about?
For those who have never seen the animated Avatar series, it contains an infamous introduction at the beginning of each episode, narrated by a waterbending master named Katara (Mae Whitman), which goes a long way to setting the scene for the story.
“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements. Only he could stop the ruthless firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.”
The Avatar world is inspired by Asia and Indigenous America, with the characters split into four main tribes: water, earth, fire, and air. Certain people within these tribes have the power to ‘bend’ their given element, but the Avatar is the only being capable of mastering all four. Unfortunately, there is only one Avatar per generation, and our hero starts the series trapped in ice.
With the Fire Nation having all but destroyed the Air Nomads and waged all-out war on the remaining nations, the only hope of balance and future peace rests on the shoulders of 12-year-old Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier). With the help of his trusty flying bison, Appa, and his two new Water Tribe companions, Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley), Aang must rise to the challenge and master all four elements to defeat the Fire Nation, all while avoiding capture from exiled fire prince Zuko (Dallas Liu).
When will Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) be released on Netflix?
Avatar: The Last Airbender is scheduled to drop around the world on Netflix come February 22, 2024. The marks 19 years since the original animated series first hit our Nickelodeon screens, and 14 years since M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action film. All you need to know is that February 22 should be an important date marked in your calendar.
Who plays Aang and the Gaang in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
With the original voice actors providing such iconic performances in the 2005 series, there are some big shoes to fill for our live-action stars. Let’s take a look at all you need to know about the 2024 cast. Netflix announced the main cast for Avatar: The Last Airbender back in 2022 and it is almost time for our latest set of heroes to take to the screen. 14-year-old Canadian actor Gordon Cormier takes on the role of Avatar Aang, with Kiawentiio and Ian Ousley playing the iconic brother-and-sister Water Tribe duo, Katara and Sokka. Dallas Liu has been cast as the scarred and exiled Prince Zuko, forever guided by the wise teachings of Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun Hyung-Lee). Over in the Fire Nation, our two antagonists for the series, Princess Azula and Fire Lord Ozai, will be portrayed on screen by Elizabeth Yu and Daniel Dae Kim respectively.
Other notable cast members include:
- Ken Leung as Commander Zhao
- Maria Zhang as Suki
- Yvonne Chapman as Avatar Kyoshi
- C. S. Lee as Avatar Roku
- Danny Pudi as The Mechanist
- Utkarsh Ambudkar as King Bumi
- James Sie as Cabbage Merchant
- Momona Tamada as Ty Lee
- Thalia Tran as Mai
- Amber Midthunder as Princess Yue
How many episodes are in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)?
The Netflix adaptation of our beloved Avatar series will consist of eight episodes.
Will the Netflix Show follow the original animated series?
It remains to be seen how closely the Netflix adaptation will follow the original animated series, but adaptations are very rarely mirror images. While the creators of the original show, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were announced as the Netflix series’ executive producers and showrunners back in 2019, they soon left their roles due to creative differences. DiMartino revealed on his own website that their vision for the show differed from Netflix’s, while he also alleged a ‘negative and unsupporting’ environment around the project.
While it has not yet been confirmed, we can assume that Series One of the Netflix show will focus on Book One of the original series. Eight one-hour episodes would provide a similar run-time to the original 20 animated episodes, each 23 minutes in length. The episode titles certainly seem to back up that theory. Episode three on Netflix is called ‘Omashu’, while episode five of the original was called ‘The King of Omashu’. The penultimate episode on Netflix is also called ‘The North’, compared to the two-part animated finale ‘The Siege of the North’. That tells you all you need to know about the creators staying true to the Book One storyline.
What is the budget for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender?
It has been reported that each episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender had a budget of more than $15 million. Across the eight episodes, that makes for more than $120 million. Interestingly, this is less than the $150 million budget given to M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 movie, which currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 5%. That being said, $15 million per episode should be more than enough to bring Aang and his bending skills to life on the small screen.
What has been said about Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)?
Talking about his motivations behind taking on such a beloved franchise,writer, showrunner, and executive producer, Albert Kim admitted in a 2021 Netflix blog that he had initial reservations. He was worried that the original series had told the story so perfectly that a remake could risk breaking something that didn’t even need fixing in the first place. However, the more he considered it, the more he decided that VFX technology could translate and add a new dimension to the original animated world. ‘We’ll be able to see bending in a real and visceral way we’ve never seen before,’ Kim wrote.
Kim promised to expand the growing world with ‘surprises for existing fans’ while remaining authentic to the source material and showcasing the ‘Asian and Indigenous characters as living breathing people’. Kim promised. ‘I didn’t want to change things for the sake of change.’
Who else is involved in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender?
The executive producers of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender are Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore, Michael Goi, Roseanne Liang, Albert Kim, and Jabbar Raisani. Bonnie Benwick is listed as producer, while the composer is Takeshi Furukawa and the cinematographers are Michael Goi, Stewart Whelan, and Michael Balfry.
With Aang and the Gaang coming to Netflix very soon, make sure to keep an eye on this page for all the latest updates on Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as previews and reviews of the episodes themselves.
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