Netflix’s Avatar Exec Is Avoiding the Show’s Infamous Live-Action Movie

Avatar: The Last Airbender deserves every bit of praise it has received. Following its ’00s launch, the animated series has become a landmark show for millions, and Avatar has the fandom to prove it. Following its recent resurgence, the franchise is bigger than ever, and Avatar is about to expand. Netflix’s live-action TV adaptation is on the horizon, and its developer admits they refused to watch the first live-action adaptation of Avatar for… reasons.

The confession comes from Entertainment Weekly as the publication spoke with Albert Kim. It was there the executive producer of Netflix’s Avatar admitted he has never seen The Last Airbender circa 2010. The live-action adaptation was overseen by M. Night Shyamalan, and in movie circles, The Last Airbender is touted as one of the worst film adaptations to date.

“I’ll tell you something, I never watched the Shyamalan movie,” Kim shared. “There was a period of time where I thought I should watch it, but then I thought, I don’t really want those images in my head as I start to go forward with our version of this project. So I avoided it purposefully.”

For many Avatar fans, they wish they could say the same as Kim. The movie was panned universally before its debut in 2010, but some Avatar fans did check it out in theaters only to be horrified. Some are surely wondering whether Kim’s adaptation of Avatar with Netflix may stumble like this previous adaptation. After all, a history ignored is doomed to repeat itself. However, Kim said he is all too aware of the critiques The Last Airbender earned.

“I knew what fans didn’t like about it in general,” Kim carried on, “but those kinds of pitfalls weren’t hard to avoid. For instance, an authentic version of the casting, that’s something that we would’ve done regardless. And, to be fair, Shymalan’s movie was made at a time when the technology hadn’t caught up yet to what the world deserved. So I knew that the VFX was going to be much better than whatever they did anyway.”

As you can imagine, The Last Airbender has made many fans wary of this Netflix live-action adaptation. So far, the TV series has impressed fans with its cast picks, and what’s we have seen so far is solid. But until Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender goes live, all we can do is wait (and worry) for its horizon to dawn.

What do you think about this latest Avatar update? Are you surprised by this confession? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!