This May Have Been the Worst Moment in ‘The Last Airbender’

With the announcement of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender being in the works at Netflix, fans can’t help but be reminded of the last time such an attempt was made: M. Night Shyamalan‘s much-maligned live-action film, The Last Airbender. While there are any number of problems with the film, a number of folks are pointing to one early problem as one of the biggest.

Specifically, there’s an opening animation in the original television series featuring several past Avatars in front of a backdrop featuring Chinese characters. The film mimics this, but replaces the actual Chinese with nonsense scribbles, as noted by Twitter user Shattered-Earth:

Of course, the new Netflix live-action series has both original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, working on the project, so it’s unlikely that there will be similar mistakes. Add to that the statement focused on diversity released by the duo as part of the press release announcing the project, and you’ve got a recipe for a totally different project from Shyamalan’s film.

“We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the statement reads in part. “We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast.”

While details on the upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series are essentially nonexistent, it appears to be a reimagining of the journey of Aang, the original animated series protagonist. Whether that means other essential characters, like Team Avatar, will remain as integral to the story or if the story itself will remain unchanged isn’t known.

The new live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is scheduled to release on Netflix at some point in the future.