Avatar: The Last Airbender returns to live-action in Netflix teaser
More than a decade after M. Night Shyamalan took a stab at it, the real last Airbender takes off at Netflix
TV News The Last Airbender
Oh, so this is the last airbender? We’ve heard that before.
Regardless of whether or not there will be more airbenders, Netflix has another last one on the way. The long-awaited live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is making its way to the streamer next year, and they’ve got a teaser trailer to prove it. Filled with the same impressive and expensive special effects that helped make its previous animation adaptation, One Piece, a reality, the teaser is our first glimpse of the latest, if not the last, Airbender.
Fans of the TV series will find a lot of recognizable characters here, including Aang (Gordon Cormier), an Avatar who is training his telekinetic powers so that he can manipulate the four elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. (Oh, god, we hope we’re right about that description). Those powers are on display in the trailer, which uses Netflix’s considerable budget to make the animated magic a live-action and computer-generated reality.
Based on the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name, Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is a long time coming. M. Night Shyamalan directed an adaptation of the series in 2010 that fans and critics hated in equal measure. The experience changed the course of Shyamalan’s career and the director seems much happier not directing $150 million fantasy movies. Nearly a decade later, in 2018, Netflix announced its series, which retained the help of series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who left the show over creative differences.
To its credit, Netflix has certainly not given up on turning animated properties into live-action epics. The overwhelmingly positive response to One Piece must give fans some hope for The Last Airbender. Will this truly be the last Airbender? Only time will tell.
Avatar: The Last Airbender streams on February 22.
14 Comments
This…could be good?I wonder if this takes off will they do Korra next. That show did NOT fuck around.
“If it’s a remake of a classic, rent the classic!”- Jay Prescott Sherman, The Critic
Some people prefer live action to cartoons.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To them I say . . .“If it’s a remake of a classic, rent the classic!”- Jay Prescott Sherman, The Critic, but in live action this time
Best joke I’ve seen this week XD
Those people are dumb Edit: honestly it’s a very boomer attitude to dismiss animation as an art form entirely, usually because “It’s for kids”.
I submit my avatar as evidence that I agree with you.
I bet if studios could give puberty blockers to their child stars, they would. Aang looked 3 different ages in that trailer alone, bless
“Filled with the same impressive and expensive special effects that helped make its previous animation adaptation, One Piece, a reality“The difference is the One Piece teasers still showed us the goofy over the top world and its goofy characters. This, sadly, seems to be taking this show far too seriously. Avatar: The Last Airbender is great because it told a very serious story and addressed tough issues while still also having a lot of slap stick fun and silliness. I don’t get any of that comedy in this trailer
One shot of Aang doing the marble trick would do so much.
The creator of One Piece was heavily involved in the creative process for the One Piece adaptation from start to finish, the creators of Avatar walked out over differences. That’s really all I need to know.
Yeah I know. I did hear that the still control the animated rights to Avatar and are working on some new projects with it at Nick. So maybe we will get that some day
The cast isn’t whitewashed this time, at least.
Hoping that this is good, since I’ve always adored the original and Korra, but I keep getting a weird vibe about this one.It’s interesting that so much of the hype and promotion for the live action series remains predicated on ‘the look.’ I get it, it comes with the territory on any adaptation, but they keep playing the “Don’t you worry, this Avatar show is definitely going to look like an Avatar show!” game, and it’s starting to feel like this is all they really have to show off.And honestly, the look is easy. The heavy lifting for what everything in this world should look like was already done ages ago in the animated series — you’re really just asking the production and VFX people to color inside the lines at this point. It’s the creative elements of the writing and performances that are turning into bigger and bigger question marks.