Aang and the gang’s upcoming live-action series was quite a challenge according to its showrunner.
Avatar: The Last Airbender resonated with fans to the point that fans are still dying to see new adventures in the world of Aang and his friends, years following the series finale. While the original animated universe will be extended via new feature-length films beginning in 2025, bending fans will have the chance to relive the tale in a brand new way on Netflix in 2024. In a recent interview, the showrunner for the live-action take on Avatar discussed how bringing the series to life once again was no easy task.
Netflix’s take on Avatar, as many fans know, isn’t the first time that Aang and his friends were brought to the “real world”. In 2010, director M. Night Shyamalan attempted to share a new take on the bending universe, but the project failed to resonate amongst fans of the original. Rather than recreating the series as a film once again, Netflix is taking the opportunity to revive the original animated property as a television series.
Avatar’s Live-Action Return
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Albert Kim revealed that the task of adapting the bending universe was quite daunting, “You’d have to be an idiot not to be intimidated a little bit. My first reaction after ‘Hell yeah!’ was ‘Holy s—! 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.”
Kim explained that despite the challenge of bringing Avatar: The Last Airbender to life, he still wanted to move forward with the Netflix project, “A live-action version meant setting new benchmarks for representation by featuring an all Asian and Indigenous cast.”
In further discussing the new live-action series, Kim mentions how they’re aiming to change the story of Aang in some unique ways, “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. We had to 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.”
Do you think Avatar’s live-action series will be able to do justice to its source material? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of bending.
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