Uh-oh. Guess it’s that time…time to reveal the live-action version of the beloved 2000s cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender that Netflix has been working on. The streamer let loose four pictures of the main cast in full costume today, alongside a small teaser that shows nothing but the Elemental Symbols.
If you feel wary about this, so do I, and that has a lot to do with the fact that a live-action ATLA has been tried once before and immolated itself worse than a certain cabbage stand. “The Last Airbender” was directed by Shaymalan and released in 2011 to boos from everyone. Netflix has an uphill climb to convince anyone to give the “real” Gaang a second shot, and their track record with translating cartoons to reality is not good.
You know how they got to do this? Because Paramount didn’t realize the value of the ATLA brand until after Netflix had closed the deal for this series. After running the cartoon on Netflix brought in massive numbers, the mountain felt embarrassed and set up a new studio dedicated to making new Avatar-verse shows for Paramount+. They wouldn’t let this happen today. But they did, so here it is.
Gordon Cormier as Aang.
Kiawentiio as Katara.
Ian Ousley as Sokka.
Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko.
We’ll see what we get. Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix version) has a release window of sometime in 2024.
