Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Exec Reveals Live-Action Will Be More Serialized Than Animated Series
Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender will be more serialized than the animated series says its showrunner.
Avatar: The Last Airbender will be making its live-action series adaptation debut with Netflix next month, and the showrunner behind the new series has revealed it will feature more serialized elements than seen in the first season of the original animated series! Avatar: The Last Airbender might be fondly remembers as one of the best animated releases from Nickelodeon, but the end of the series is much different from when it all began. Although it told its serialized story across three seasons, the first season spent much of its time focusing on episodic adventures fleshing out each of the characters in Aang's gaang.
The first season spent nearly half of its run on episodic stories that didn't necessarily lead into one another, but that's going to be a different approach than seen with Netflix's upcoming live-action series. Speaking with SFX Magazine about the upcoming series, showrunner Albert Kim explained that the Netflix show will be less of a "adventure of the week" series and more serialized. Speaking to that change Kim stated, "We all knew that there were things we wanted to change, but not just for the sake of change. There had to be a reason for the change."
How Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Will Change
This falls in line with what Kim stated previously about these changes for Avatar: The Last Airbender's Netflix series that "remix" the events seen in the animated original, "We don't start the show the way the animated series starts," Kim stated "That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series." Before elaborating further with, "We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama. So I'm very curious to see what'll happen in terms of reaction to that."
It won't be too long before we see how it all works out as Avatar: The Last Airbender will be premiering with Netflix around the world on February 22nd. The new live-action series will be running for eight episodes with its debut season, and will star a main cast including the likes of Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, and more.
What kinds of changes would you want to see in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!