Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender left a huge impression on fans when it premiered back in 2005, and with one panned live-action attempt and one in the works under its belt, one fan film is hoping to show how to adapt the series properly.
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RE:Anime, an indie studio producing live-action anime projects, is taking on The Last Airbender series with Avatar: Agni Kai. You can check out the fiery teaser trailer for the project above.
Avatar: Agni Kai is a fan-film project exploring the fight between Zuko and Azula to decide who would be the next Fire Lord. It’s an especially prominent moment in the series as Azula, who was about to be crowned the next Lord, was challenged by Zuko for the birthright. It was a big moment in the series, and their powers were at the maximum level thanks to the passing of Sozin’s Comet.
Starring Yoshi Sudarso as Zuko (who you might recognize from his role as Koda the Blue Ranger in Power Rangers Dino Charge), Nikki Soohoo as Azula, and Yasmin Kassim as Katara, the short film will leave quite an impact if the fight is as fantastically done here as it was in their previous fan-film highlighting the fight between Kakashi and Obito in Naruto.
As for the official live-action production, it is being produced exclusively for Netflix. Though details of the cast, crew, and the official release date are currently being kept under wraps, original creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko serve as executive producers and showrunners with a scheduled production start in 2019.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was originally created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelodeon in 2005. The series is set in world people can manipulate the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, and they lived peacefully in different regions until one of the regions started a world war. One master who can manipulate all four elements, dubbed the “Avatar,” had been able to prevent this war, but disappeared soon after. 100 years later, a new Avatar named Aang awakens and sets out on a journey to master all the elements in order to bring peace to the land once more.
The series became famous for its heavy anime influences and well-crafted narrative, and has spawned comics, video games, a sequel in The Legend of Korra, and even a live-action film directed by M. Night Shyamalan.