Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most celebrated animated series of all time, but few expected the show to get a sequel. When The Legend of Korra was first announced, fans were uncertain whether the show’s legacy should continue. The sequel has gone on to convince fans otherwise, and in a recent interview, the co-creators of Avatar admit they started to formulate ideas for the sequel soon after Aang’s journey closed.
During a recent chat with Polygon, it was there Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino opened up about the early days of The Legend of Korra. It turns out the titular heroine is not what hooked them on a sequel so much as it was the idea of a non-bending revolution.
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“After ATLA ended we had the idea for a revolutionary sect of non-bending Chi-blockers. Once we started development on TLOK and had the setting of a modern metropolis in the Avatar world we thought that concept was a good fit. The age-old tensions between those who had bending abilities and those who didn’t would be brought into sharp contrast in this huge, melting pot of a city,” Konietzko shared.
“Even though our fantasy world celebrates the amazing powers of benders, we wanted to take a look at how these societies had developed with a bias towards benders and how that has impacted those without bending.”
Clearly, the central conflict of The Legend of Korra is what grabbed the co-creators at first. The prospect of the Avatar Universe moving past bending was a novel idea and the spiritual implications that would come with such a revolution needed to be explored. It is the fans’ good fortune that Korra was created to investigate the topic and all those characters like Amon had to say.
What do you think about the creation process behind The Legend of Korra? Does anything stand out or surprise you? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.