1 Scene In The Live-Action Avatar: The Last Airbender Trailer Should Ease Your Fears

The trailer for the live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender should put fans at ease because it pays tribute to the original source material while adding its own creative spin. The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is considered one of the greatest TV shows ever made, not just because of its original concept of characters who can bend certain elements, but because of how expertly developed the story and characters are. With the highly-anticipated live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender coming out this coming February on Netflix, the newly released teaser indicates that they’re on the right track to restoring what made the original series work so well.

Remaking something like Avatar: The Last Airbender requires capturing the animated show’s essence while adding more depth to the creativity of the original story. It is good to see more light shed on the characters and story as long as it doesn’t retcon them in any way or form. That’s been the problem with some of the live-action Disney remakes that have been released over the past decade. They’re either too similar or too different. Going by the trailer for the Avatar: The Last Airbender remake, Netflix appears to understand this.

Iroh’s Speech In The Live-Action Avatar Trailer Explained

In Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender teaser trailer, a voiceover, likely from Uncle Iroh, provides the following monologue: “Time is a funny thing. The past, the future, it all gets mixed up. There’s only one way to keep it straight: always remember who you are.” As the voiceover is relayed, the teaser displays all the major characters, including Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Azula, Ozai, and Iroh himself. Though it isn’t clear who Iroh is talking to, knowing how his story goes in Book 1, he’s likely talking to Zuko.

One of the core themes of Avatar: The Last Airbender was self-identity. Most of the main characters go on their own personal journeys as they help Aang on his quest to defeat Ozai and restore balance to the world. The only main character who knew exactly who he was from the beginning was Uncle Iroh. His wisdom as a character and letting Zuko choose his own journey is what makes Iroh one of Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s most popular characters.

The Trailer Scene Shows The Creative Team Is Honoring The Source Material

Iroh’s voiceover in the Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer is loosely based on a speech he gives to Zuko in a flashback in book 3, episode 12, “The Western Air Temple.” Zuko, who has been banished for one week, vows to find the Avatar, believing that it’s his destiny. In response, Iroh tells Zuko, “Destiny is a funny thing. You never know how things are going to work out, but if you keep an open mind and an open heart, I promise you will find your own destiny someday.” It’s one of his best quotes in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The voiceover in the Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer is loosely based on Iroh’s speech in this scene from the animated series, demonstrating that the remake’s creative team is honoring the source material while not completely ripping it off. By doing this, they are standing on their own while not straying too far away from what made the original such a phenomenon it was when it aired. Those behind this upcoming live-action remake could have simply coasted on the coattails of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they’ve shown thus far that they won’t.