Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated series so beloved that somebody did an oral history on one of its smallest characters, is currently being developed as a live-action series at Netflix, one that could presumably wash away the bad taste of that garbage M. Night Shyamalan movie. We expressed trepidation at the news when it was announced in 2018, comparing the effort to Icarus’ ill-fated flight alongside the sun. Sadly, our pessimism appears to have been warranted.
In a letter posted to his website, one of the show’s shepherds, Michael DiMartino, says he has left the project alongside Bryan Konietzko, with whom he created the original series. “Many of you have been asking me for updates about the Avatar live-action Netflix series,” he writes. “I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production.”
DiMartino goes on to say that, while Netflix said it was “committed to honoring our vision for this retelling,” he and Konietzko eventually lost control of the creative direction of the adaptation. “Look, things happen. Productions are challenging. Unforeseen events arise. Plans have to change,” he writes. ‘And when those things have happened at other points during my career, I try to be like an Air Nomad and adapt. I do my best to go with the flow, no matter what obstacle is put in my way. But even an Air Nomad knows when it’s time to cut their losses and move on.”
The live-action series is still moving forward with with Nickelodeon, executive producer Dan Lin, and his Rideback production company. As DiMartino writes, however, “whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.”
Avatar, a series about a many-lived 100-year-old warrior-monk child (with a lovable air bison friend) who can control the elements of fire, earth, air, and water, ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon between 2005 and 2008, though it’s experienced a resurgence in popularity after landing on Netflix. A sequel series, The Legend of Korra, premiered a few years later—just today we published a breakdown of its 10 most impactful episodes.
Read the full letter below:
Many of you have been asking me for updates about the Avatar live-action Netflix series. I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production.
When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.
Look, things happen. Productions are challenging. Unforeseen events arise. Plans have to change. And when those things have happened at other points during my career, I try to be like an Air Nomad and adapt. I do my best to go with the flow, no matter what obstacle is put in my way. But even an Air Nomad knows when it’s time to cut their losses and move on.
I started to reevaluate what is truly important in my life and what I wanted to do with what’s left of it. I took some advice from Uncle Iroh. I looked inward and started asking myself the big question: “Who are you and what do you want?”
I also sought wisdom from Stoic philosophers who were big on differentiating between what is within our control and what isn’t. I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.
And who knows? Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good. It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.
I also want to be clear that this doesn’t mean the end of my involvement in the Avatar universe. These stories and characters are important to me and the renewed interest and excitement in Avatar and Korra has been inspiring to see.
Writing this letter has left me with a very heavy heart. I know many of you will be disappointed and frustrated by this news. I get it. I share your disappointment and frustration. I also recognize this creative setback is small compared to the problems we’re all facing as a society right now.
Thankfully, Iroh offered some wisdom for that, too: “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving you will come to a better place.”
May we all keep moving and come to a better place.
Thanks for reading and for your continued enthusiasm for the Avatar universe.
With gratitude,
Michael Dante DiMartino
UPDATE (4:02 p.m. CT): Netflix has released a statement: “We have complete respect and admiration for Michael and Bryan and the story that they created in the Avatar animated series,” the streamer said in a statement. “Although they have chosen to depart the live-action project, we are confident in the creative team and their adaptation.”
73 Comments
iight imma head out
Aunt Wu says this is a bad sign..
Well this is a bad sign. Still, whatever Netflix does will at the very least be marginally better than the last live action adaptation….
That rock is still floating out there, somewhere. Looking for a home. Looming over the horizon, looking for someone to love…
I will never not laugh at that gif.
The whole scene is laughably stupid.Why the fuck would the Fire Nation build a prison for Earthbenders on solid ground?Why did none of the Earthbenders realize that they can just up and leave since they can bend their way to freedom until Aang gives a motivational speech?Why do the guards let the Earthbenders do their little cheerleading dance to throw that one rock? There was plenty of time to just subdue them while they were powering up.What is the point of Aang learning Earthbending if it requires that much effort to lift one rock that could have easily been thrown by hand?
Let’s not forget
2a. Why did Aang give the inspirational speech instead of Katara?
Because girls aren’t allowed to have a personality is what I’d normally think, but no one was allowed to have a personality in this movie, so I have no clue.
Might be misremembering, but didn’t the firebenders have to carry around little lighters because they couldn’t make fire on their own? I knew that the bending from the cartoon would be much more difficult to translate into live-action special effects, but they really leaned into making it look as mundane-looking as possible.
Yeah, they had to carry around their own supply of fire in the movie.
Except for when Zuko clearly firebends ice on his own when sneaking in to the Norther Water Tribe. The movie couldn’t even keep its own rules consistent.
Yep. And they made a big deal in the end scene where Ozai is talking to Azula about how Sozin’s Comet was when firebenders could bend fire without needing a source for the flame. I remember way too much about that terrible movie.
I got to see this in theaters in 3D. It was the time of the post conversion process 3D and The Last Airbender was so bad. The movie and the 3D. At least in 2D above that rock has a bit of motion blur to hide how fake it looks. In 3D it looked like someone drew it in using Mario paint
I remember thinking, “No wonder the Fire Nation is winning. In the time it takes to do any bending moves and when the stuff actually moves, they can just have their armored guys run up and stab them.”
It kind of makes you wonder why the Fire Nation even bothered to imprison them in the first place. It’s not like they’re a threat.
Yeah, Netflix has seriously invested in advanced, authentic floating rock technology. You can barely see the strings.
One of my all-time favorite moments as a theatergoer is when the movie ended and one of the 6-7 year olds in front of me turned to his friend and said, “Well, this franchise is fucked.”
So, have these two run any live-action productions in the past? I know that the challenges are quite different from animation.I’m just looking for reasons to not be upset I guess. You’d think Netflix would know damn well how valuable their involvement would be and try to keep them on no matter what. This headline is worse than if they were never involved to begin with.
Nope, nope, nope. I’m out.
can anyone explain to me why do we NEED a live action version of the series? (besides them wanting moar monies)
Because even if you don’t see it, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And that light is a live-action cinematic universe that Netflix can mine for billions.
I remember them saying they were ready to move on from the world of Avatar back in 2014. I agree with you—no need for this remake when the original holds up as well as it ever did.
The Dragon Prince is actually pretty good.Not AS good as Avatar, and a little derivative, but it’s engaging enough.
I’m sure it is! I just don’t see a need for a live-action remake of a story already told close to perfectly.
Unfortunately, it’s approaching that third season, after which Netflix cancels all shows.
Actually they confirmed it was renewed for four more seasons (until season 7)
I hadn’t heard that, great.
*Laughs in OA*
Actually, The Dragon Prince was recently renewed for 4 more seasons.
I so dearly wish Dragon Prince was animated in the Avatar style rather than the distractingly crummy low-framerate 3D animation we got.
It was really good. They ended it well too, so there most likely won’t be a new season
Same reason we got live action remakes Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, etc.–they have this IP sitting around with a built-in audience and it’s less financially risky to just make a different version of that rather than ask creators to come up with something new.
I am a medium fan of the shows, but wasn’t the making of this the impetus for Netflix bringing the show to the US? Seems weird to get these guys involved and then not let them have their way. Avatar fans are relentless also, they do not need the show on Netflix because they have it already. But watch for the boycott campaign over this message.
Exactly. One of the reasons also that the live adaptation was keeping such a cautious but still overall positive bit of anticipation from fans of the original was because they were involved and going to make sure it wasn’t as horribly misunderstood and the previous movie. This is going to tank every ounce of optimism and good Will Netflix had going for it.
Not sure what you mean by “bringing to the US”, Avatar is an American show produced by Nickelodeon. It is in the style of Anime but it is a US creation
Netflix has had the rights to show it outside the US before now. Viacom sold them the rest of the rights recently. I am pretty sure it was available in the US through Amazon or Apple TV as a purchase up to that point.
It was in Netflix for a long time then went away and then came back
Does Nickelodeon have animation rights or something? Not that I find the decision totally off base, but it does seem odd that a show that’s success has been in animated form, that had a well received animated sequel series, and a networks decision would be…lets remake what people have already seen in live action form, when for a fraction of that cost they could have had several seasons worth of another animated series from these guys, expanding on Aang or Korra or moving on to the next Avatar.
I’d love to see an animated anthology series telling us about the previous Avatars. We could get short stories about Korra and Aang too but I would love to see stuff about the rest of Avatars we have only seen small bits about
I’ve always said I’d love to see a prequel series or a comic giving us an idea of what a ‘normal’ Avatar’s life is like. Not that any of them are strictly normal, but one where the four nations co-exist more or less peacefully and the world hasn’t been utterly wrecked by war. Even the period from Legend of Korra grapples with the after-effects of the war. But I’d want to see what the setting would consider a ‘normal’ Avatar existence.
There’s two Kyoshi books about her time as an Avatar.
Ah, that’s right, I keep forgetting about those. I should make a note to pick them up some time.
Hell, they have a series of graphic novels about the time between Aang and Korra, so they already have source material if they wanted to use it.
Yeah, I’d think a sequel animated series or a fifth season of Korra would be the real obvious pick. It sounds like the original creators would still be down for it, so I don’t know why they don’t just do it.
Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to find a cast of child actors of color who are amazing at martial arts, speak perfect English, and don’t age between seasons.
Cloning and the DNC Deep State Child trafficking farms! #WWG1WGAEdit: This is a joke, I am not a QANON moron
Yeah, I always though that casting this thing was going to be a nightmare. You could probably find one Asian kid who can act decently in English and pull off the martial arts convincingly, but the, I don’t know, seven or so minimum that they’d need would be difficult. This isn’t me ripping on Asian people for the record, it’s just that they’re a minority in English speaking countries, a tiny minority of all kids are decent actors, a tiny minority of kids that are decent actors can do the martial arts, and acting outside of your native language can be hard, so trying to cast from foreign countries could be even less likely to find an actor who is good enough for the part once you compound that with the lower quantity of good child actors. So finding a kid who meets all of these criteria would just be a nightmare, let alone half a dozen. Not impossible, but I got why casting was taking them so longI think this is just showing why this worked better as an animated series, because the voice actors can be any age and don’t have to be martial artists.
If you tried to get the nationalities right, rather than general Asian, it would actually be impossible. There are just not a lot of kids on the PLANET that meet those standards. I don’t know why they even tried to do this show.
There are no nationalities on this show. But I should leave it up to you, the expert. As you no doubt spent sometime on a global census to determine the amount of asian kids who can act and have some martial arts ability. Heaven forbide we use any sort of doubles for the action work.
Bhahahahahahah.This is beautiful. Soooooo good. Man I love this post.18.2 million Asian AmericansTaiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong has predominantly English speaking populations. Thailand and Vietnam have a healthy English speaking populations.But yes, should be a reaaaaal struggle to find like 7 actors.
I think in this respect at least M. Night had the right idea, and the live action show will likely take this route as well, which is to make the 3 books take place over 3 years, rather than 3 months as the show does.(also I don’t think finding actors of color who’s native language is English is going to be that big a challenge)
I thought the whole show took place over at least 6 months if not a year, so at least 2-3 months per season? I know it’s not a month per season because they go through the winter solstice and the summer solstice as well. Although I do agree that for a live action version they’re probably gonna make the timespan longer.
Yeah, I don’t know the exact timeline, I just remembered it was pretty early on when they learned the comet would be arriving by the end of summer, so I always just ascribed the show to taking place over summer, could be a couple other seasons in there though.
So the thing about finding actors who speak English and are Asian is that they also have to be INSANELY good at martial arts. Like, award-winning good at martial arts (the kid who played Aang in the movie was a Tae Kwon Do champion; that’s how he got the role). And that stuff takes time to teach, especially with kids, who don’t have adult patience, motor skills, or muscles. Those adult wire-fu actors? They start training them as KIDS. They go to schools where they learn how to stage fight and use wires and train for years and years and then when they get to be adults, they get to be in movies, and hopefully they can act.
America, as far as I know, doesn’t have entire schools/film production companies dedicated to training kids in stage fighting. You’re probably going to have to go to China to find those kids, and they’re still not going to be as good as adults, and their English, if it exists at all, will be limited and through an accent.
The combination of child/Asian/actor/martial arts master is not castable. Maybe you’ll get one guy. One. Oh, and child actors can only work half-schedules and you have to pay for a tutor, so the length of production will double, and it’s harder to use stunt actors for kids. This is a nightmare project.
I’m almost certain that they’ll age up the characters, to their late teens/early twenties. It would just make casting and production so much easier than trying to shoot the series with tweens and early teenage kids.
There are about a million people of Asian descent living in LA County (about 10 of the population). Wouldn’t be that hard that to find decent-ish actors. The martial arts … maybe very petite stunt doubles? And the no aging is what that shady doctor operating out of a mini-mall over on Pico is for.
I want to know what are the specific issues that led to this…A lot of people are suspecting whitewashing and if so, then Netflix is just dumb. They had to have at least done research into the original movie adaptation’s reception to know that whitewashing was an issue. Or were they trying to make it Riverdale with bending? I’d like to know what happened, especially since I’ve heard that Netflix isn’t that hands on with shows.
Maybe budget issues? I’d imagine a lot of the effects would be pretty expensive in live action, although you’d expect that to be planned for from the start. Maybe it was stuff like “does the airbender temple *have* to be floating in the air?,” “do we really need these spirit creatures?” etc.
From what I’ve seen Netflix just throws money at anything they actually greenlight. I mean the CGI budgets of stuff like Umbrella Academy must be pretty substantial.
Eh, I know that there were things in The Old Guard that got changed (in ways that worked) for budget reasons – I don’t think the resources offered are totally limitless. And, Umbrella Academy S2 was actually pretty light on the effects, outside of the very beginning and ending fights, wasn’t it? Nowhere near the same as having to have an air bison in significant parts of every episode, for example.
My guess as well. Does Appa have to be in every episode? Maybe let’s have him kidnapped earlier and for longer!
My guess: Netflix wanted to make it more violent and action-oriented – which of course goes against the entire theme of the show, specifically the driving conflict in the final episode – and the creators tried to keep it pure the way it was originally.Either that or Netflix wanted more lore, Lore, LORE!!! and the creators wanted to keep the focus on characters and their maturity arcs.
A remake always seemed like such a bad idea. If they were going to do a live-action show, why not tell the story of a past or future Avatar?
I’ve always been interested in the Avatar who fought Koh The Face Stealer. I was always curious what the story was there. And that had the potential to be really interesting because that seemed to be a much smaller scale, personal threat than what Ang and Korra had to deal with.
Exactly! If they’re gonna do live action with as much creative freedom as possible they can literally do a story on all the other freaking Avatars. Why remake a beloved cartoon that people hold so dear to their hearts? If they do a new adaptation there’s a lot of benefits. They control Vfx budget, story, and lore and so much more and plus they have more creative liberty.
Well, this just got significantly less likely to be good…
So they are continuing. That should be interesting – I guess we’ll find out what the sticking points were when it finally comes out.
I hope it’s good, but it’s not going to feel like a real ATLA adaptation without their input. Sigh.
This was such a bad idea to begin with. I’ve been crossing my fingers that everyone involved realises it’s a mistake and decides to commit the time, money, and talent into creating something new instead. I mean I know that’s not how the entertainment industry works anymore but hey, we can dream.
I guess we’re just gonna not talk about how the majority of voice actors in both The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra were white people pretending to be Asian?
Netflix shows rely on serialized binging rather than one-shot episodic adventures (which leads to things like pacing issues, and individual episodes never standing out and feeling like a blur) so I just don’t see how tackling Avatar is a good fit for their business model at all.
@#$@#! That they were attached made it like 2x exciting. Now that hey are not, have real concerns that Netflix is bending the series to their algorithm of how episodic television should go (which usually ignores characterization).Worse it probably ends any chance of a cartoon continuation of the Avatar universe as I am sure Netflix blacklisted working with DiMartino and Konietzko. Sadly probably be years before learn what caused this.