Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action show creator Albert Kim explains how the series considered the animated show’s other seasons while adapting the series. Nickelodeon’s animated series version of Avatar: The Last Airbender originally ran for three seasons from 2005–2008. Now, Netflix has just released their live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which stars Gordon Cormier, Ian Ousely, Kiawentiio, Dallas Liu, and Daniel Dae Kim.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Kim details how the Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series worked to adapt the three seasons of the animated series. Kim explains that the team did some “borrowing” of later Avatar: The Last Airbender seasons’ elements into season 1, most notably in the premature introduction of Azula. However, Kim made sure that he “didn’t focus beyond season one,” and made sure to keep the season 1 story as is rather than save elements of it for potential future seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s live-action show. Check out the full quote from Kim below:
Nothing as directly as that. We pulled certain elements from season two into season one, say like Azula and a couple of understory elements that fans will recognize. So, we were borrowing a little bit there, and there’s nothing to say that that process can’t go both ways. There’s nothing to say that we can’t use things that we left out of season one in later seasons. But there was no deliberate plan to do that, there was no, “well, we’ll leave this story out of season one and use it in a later season.” We left the door open for that possibility, because we have the benefit of hindsight where we know the overall gameplan of Avatar, so we can use the elements as we see fit.
Honestly, I didn’t focus beyond season one. It was enough without the additional hurdle and challenge to get season one to the finish line, that’s been the focus. And again, having the benefit of hindsight, you can look back and see in the animated series each of the seasons feel slightly different. I think fans will recognize that the later seasons of the animated series are a little more serialized than the first season, so the process might vary a little bit in that regard. But we really don’t want to look ahead, I mean for nothing else if not to change its success so, that’s why the focus has just been getting to this finish line.
How Likely Are Future Seasons Of Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Ideally, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action show will be three seasons. Not only would this match the number of seasons in the animated series, but it would give them the chance to replicate the series’ decisive central structure. The animated version of Avatar: The Last Airbender divides the three seasons into “books,” each one of which focuses on a different bending element: water, earth, and fire. This simple but clear structure lends itself well to Avatar: The Last Airbender’s story, which the live-action series could borrow.
The reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1 puts its future into doubt. Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action show holds a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is shockingly low compared with the perfect 100% score for the animated series.
Why Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Remake’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Is So Bad (& How It Compares To Past Versions)
The Rotten Tomatoes score of the 2024 Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn’t paint the series in the best light.
More hopeful for Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, however, is the fact that the audience approval rating still sits at 75%. As in the case of the critical score, this is still staggeringly low compared to the animated series’ 99% approval. Die hard fans of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe are taking issue with the series, but overall audiences are not completely loathing it. This trend could mean good things for season 1’s viewership, making the chances of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 more likely.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live-Action)
Based on the acclaimed animated Nickelodeon television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an action-adventure fantasy series developed by Albert Kim. The series follows Aang, a young man training to harness the four elements to live up to the title of Avatar – the one who will restore balance to the world.
- Cast
- Gordon Cormier , Dallas Liu , Kiawentiio , Ian Ousley , Daniel Dae Kim , Paul Sun-Hyung Lee
- Release Date
- February 22, 2024
- Seasons
- 1
- Franchise(s)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Writers
- Albert Kim , michael dante dimartino , bryan konietzko
- Directors
- Michael Goi , Roseanne Liang , Jabbar Raisani , Jet Wilkinson
- Creator(s)
- Albert Kim
- Where To Watch
- Netflix
