Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Director Teases Its Opening Scene

Avatar may be dominating the big screen right now, but before long, a very different kind of Avatar hopes to take over Hollywood with its launch. Netflix announced some time ago it planned to adapt Avatar: The Last Airbender into a live-action series, and filming wrapped on the series last year. With a stacked cast on hand, fans are eager to see Netflix's first footage, but director Michael Goi is keeping the show close to the chest until the time is right. But in a recent feature, the director eased everyone's mind by detailing how Avatar will open when it goes live.

The article was posted by Student Filmmakers as Goi penned a feature for the site. It was there the director shared advice on shooting fantasy projects, and of course, he dipped into his experience with Avatar to connect with his readers. It is there Goi shared some technical information behind the show's opening scene, and honestly? It sounds pretty magical.

READ MORE: Avatar The Last Airbender's Live-Action Series Gets Netflix Update

"On the show I am currently executive producing, directing, and shooting for Netflix, Avatar: The Last Airbender, much of the show is shot on the largest virtual production stage in the world. The visual effects artists working on the volume images are the top in their field, and the reality that they can achieve is truly astounding. But I felt it was important to keep an element of unreality to make the results more organic. And so, for the very first shot on the first day of filming, which was a shot of a boat with two passengers getting swept into a massive ice cave... I added a bit of magic," Goi shared.

Continuing, the director went on to discuss how he combined technology with practical effects to shoot an otherworldly scene. "The ice cave walls were in virtual production, the ice shelf was a practical set piece, and the wave of water was a four-foot trough placed in the foreground of the camera with a split diopter filter in front of the lens," he wrote.

"The resulting image combined the elements of different specialties to create a new reality that enhanced the fantasy of what was happening. In early production meetings, I proposed doing the shot this way with the assurance that I had done it before. I had never done it before. It just seemed like it would work in theory, and it seemed like it would be fun."

As you can see, this opening scene sounds massive, and it should sound familiar to fans. In the original series, Avatar begins with an eye on Katara and Sokka as the Water Tribe siblings are thrust into an unruly arctic sea. It is there the two find Aang hidden in the ice, and this discovery kickstarts the show's entire story. It seems like this scene is what Goi's feature describes. Judging by this piece, the opening scene is going to be impressive, and fans won't accept anything less. So if we are lucky, maybe Netflix will give us a look at Avatar as 2023 chugs along.

Are you excited for Netflix to drop its first look at Avatar: The Last Airbender? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.