Netflix both renews and ends Avatar: The Last Airbender
Netflix's live-action remake of the original animated classic will conclude after three seasons
Aux News Avatar: The Last Airbender
While the rest of the television world fights in the great streaming wars, it looks like Aang will actually be able to complete his. Netflix announced today that it would be renewing Avatar: The Last Airbender—its live-action adaptation of the beloved, animated Nickelodeon show from the early-aughts—for two more seasons. The kicker is that its third season will also be its last, in order to “bring The Legend of Aang to its proper conclusion,” per a press release from the streamer.
While fans of the new show might be disappointed at this early finale announcement, it’s actually pretty hard to find fault in Netflix’s strategy here. The original animated series also concluded after three seasons, which should reasonably provide a pretty good road map as showrunner Albert Kim continues to expand the fantastical universe. While nothing is ever guaranteed these days, this two-season order also provides essential padding against the almighty streaming ax. (Although, somewhat ironically, it still means Netflix is ending the show after its typical three-season run.) Fans can come into the world of this series assured that the journey on which they’re about to embark will actually go somewhere, an increasingly rare luxury in the current television landscape.
Still, it’s not like the series is exactly hurting for eyeballs in the first place. According to the press release, Avatar: The Last Airbender racked up a whopping 41.1 million viewers in its first 11 days on the streamer, rendering it the #1 show in 76 countries. These are apparently the sort of numbers new series need to hit to get a season renewal nowadays, much less two. Other shows, like the Michelle Yeoh-starring The Brothers Sun, haven’t been so lucky.
The series will continue to follow young airbender Aang (Gordon Cormier) and his friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), as they attempt to liberate the world from the wrath of the Fire Lord, Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). Dallas Liu, Ken Leung, and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also star as Prince Zuko, Commander Zhao, and Uncle Iroh respectively.
The first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently streaming on Netflix.
50 Comments
Is it actually an early ending? I don’t think anyone really expected anything less. If anything, the two season order should help fix some of the pacing issues from the first season.
Korra would have been awesome but I didn’t expect it
Definitely makes sense to end it after 3 seasons. Don’t want to risk a Stranger Things scenario where the kids all start growing up too fast to be… well, kids.
I don’t even know what age they’re supposed to be in-universe on that show.
They can only keep giving them coffee and cigarettes for so much longer.
It’s gonna be interesting to see how that gets handled in the upcoming season. Some have talked about a time jump to account for the fact that all the kids are in their twenties now but still playing 15 as of the last season. But that’s hard because it ended on a cliffhanger so presumably picks up right after, otherwise they’d have to leave a giant rift in Hawkings for…years?
The in universe logic is one of many issues that Stranger Things will have to deal with. I’m guessing they’ll also have to deal with all the people who can’t remember which season was the last one, what happened, and whether they even watched it.
It was really awkward with those later seasons of Malcolm in the Middle with Dewey’s five o’clock shadow.
Even with just three seasons there’s a good chance that Aang will be over 18 by the final season.
They probably would have to film season 2 and 3 at the same time because the time skip between Season 1 and 2 is already so large (they started filming almost 4 years ago now).
I’ve never understood that argument. They looked like what they were supposed to be in the last season, high school kids. Some look older and some look younger just like in real life. That and who said they were supposed to stay kids throughout the Stranger Things storyline? You’re projecting.
Will they do live-action Legend of Korra next?
Only if it was included in the original rights sale.Bryke are making new Avatar content for Paramount right now.
Yup but for how long Paramount remain is the big question. They’re looking to sell. I can see Amazon, Apple (unlikely) or Netflix scooping them up.
‘”Will they do live-action Legend of Korra next?”’I briefly launched Netflix again today and couldn’t help but notice that they had Avatar: Legend of Korra on the first page side by side with Avatar:The Last Airbender.
I’d imagine that the creators of the franchise would do everything possible to kill that project if it was on the table.
Why? Was it hated? I loved that series infinitely more than the Last Airbender, wasn’t aware it was hated or something.
They walked away from the Netflix show due to ‘creative differences’. No elaboration was given but the general assumption is that they didn’t like the changes made for the adaptation.
I think they really walked away because Paramount gave them carte blanche and a massive paycheck (which they completely deserve). I have huge respect for the Avatar creators, but I think their claim of “creative differences” was a shitty PR stunt to throw cold water on the production when they got a much better deal from another company.
I’m also of this belief.
But I also am biased in that I think it’s shitty that, after hearing the criticisms about Avatar having too many white voice actors, they allowed Korra to be voiced by a white woman (no disrespect to Janet Varney; she did a fine job).
That’s possible. It is also true that the current adaptation made some changes that alter some of the core characters. Like introducing Ozai and Azula early or changing the way the Agni Kai played out. The latter is pretty huge IMO.
Disagree. I think it’s because of certain characters that this show totally gets wrong in such a way as to betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material, The earliest and most egregious example being Avatar Kyoshi.
It still gets alot of flak. I never saw it, I heard it was a good series, but yea alot of people didn’t like for some arbitrary reason (probably sexism).
“While fans of the new show might be disappointed at this early finale announcement”Literally no one is saying this. The first season ends at the exact same point the cartoon’s first season does, and that lasted three seasons (and might I add, was always intended to, as quite evident by the story having such a natural beginning, middle, and end). But you go ahead and pretend there’s some huge controversy because the fans wanted some lame postscript season after the main story is completely wrapped up like Earth: Final Conflict.
I thought the fourth season (looking for Zuko’s mother) was cancelled for the movie
I seem to recall hearing something about giving Azula a redemption arc in a 4th season, as well.
I kinda hate that idea. Azula needs to stay evil
Hard disagree. Ozai needs to stay evil. Azula is the product of Ozai. She never had a chance. I’m not saying she HAS to be redeemed, but the possibility is there, and if it’s not, it changes her characterization a lot. There’s a reason she is broken at the end, more mentally and emotionally defeated than physically injured.
*mentally ill.
I mean she was a 14 year old girl who wanted the love and attention of her mother, but never really got it like Zuko, Her Uncle basically have up on her, and was manipulated by her father, who intentionally burned his own son to prove a point, then developed schizophrenia towards the end…and she was still 16 at that point in time. I think people forget these are all literal children.
I think that was internet wishful thinking. Because they made a series of follow-up comics, and believe me, Azula sure as SHIT does not get “redeemed.”
If this is the case, they’d probably be digging into the comics for material.Interestingly, the Netflix series had a nod to the comics by including the Mother of Faces, who is a factor in the comic story involving the search for Zuko’s mom.
They wanted to do it in Season 3 but found there wasn’t space for it. So it’s covered in comics.
I’ll never understand why this story doesn’t get 4 seasons for the poetic symmetry of the 4 elements. 3 always felt like just short of what it needs in the original too.
Because the Books are named for the element that Aang is mastering at that point. He’s already a master of Air, so there’s no need for it to be a season.
I think it’s a genuine success, so congrats to them, but I also think that stats like ‘ 41.1 million viewers” need to have some context. Is that people who watched the whole series? One episode? Tuned in for two minutes? Different profiles or single account sessions? Netflix is definitely passing along more info than they used to but it’s still easily misleading.
This is the big problem with all subscriptions and the info they share. I want to know how many people watched the first three episodes or finished the show within the first 10 days, How many lapsed/new users rejoined/joined to watch this etc.
We get data but it still feels opaque. Netflix confirming renewal so quickly is already a strong barometer of success especially for them.
Another stat they share now is minutes watched, which again, nice and all, but it’s x seasons of hour long drams vs sitcoms vs short run prestige shows—like do people watch half of NCIS, all of Friends twice, or Breaking Bad 5 times (I did not do the math, just sayin’)
The minutes one is generally a bit silly, as the shows who dominate it are the shows that people just put on as background noise. Multiple members of my house have done cleaning, taken naps, or any other array of activities while NCIS just sits there playing. I routinely have to turn off TVs that no one is watching…
Netflix tends to cancel shows if their viewership drops significantly before the final episode, even if the numbers are still respectable. That implies that a major portion of the viewers did finish this show.
Reminds me how Facebook fucked over a lot of sites, like Cracked.com: told them videos on FB got eleventy bajillion views, got everyone to pivot to videos-on-facebook. Where the pivoters quickly learned that those “eleventy bajillion views” was ol’ Zuck counting people scrolling past videos forced into their feed that autoplayed as a “views”.
I’d love to know if if has less of a binge spike than other shows too. We are watching it as a family which is spreading out our watch compared to when we watch something individually or just my wife and I.
I think it’s a genuine success, so congrats to them, but I also think that stats like ‘ 41.1 million viewers” need to have some context.But why?Just because a movie ticket is purchased, doesn’t mean they didn’t walk out. Our ratings of TV shows for advertising purposes has been based on ~40,000 households since the 50’s. We have never had accurate data on media consumption. Why would Netflix give up the data that they have collected with their product for nothing?
Well, I want to know because I want to know, and so articles can be a little less like press releases, but the reason Netflix is giving more information than ever before (if still pretty opaque) is because the easy investment money era is gone and they need to impress investors, especially since they need to show up/show off vs the other streaming services. Hell, they could use it to bludgeon creators if they felt like it–though they could be arming them too, as well, which is obviously why while they’ve shifted to being more public a lot is still opaque.
I just don’t understand why it isn’t an option to do a live action story of another Avatar…(Ok, I know it’s because those who followed Aang’s story the first time are the right age to share it with their kids now, but that was my point of view 20 years ago, when the Shyamalan was announced)
This is exactly how a series should be made. You don’t have to stretch the damn thing out for 5+ years. Just give us fans a definitive “We’ve committed to X number of seasons, with a proper ending. It will not be abandoned without closure like 99% of our series”. Even if something is just 2 seasons, great, just tell us so we as viewers know. I do not watch shows anymore that are just 1 season because I don’t want to spend my time watchign something for 1 season, only to find it abandoned. But when you say “We’re doing 3 seasons, no more” then you pretty much have my guaranteed viewership since I know the series will end “properly” so I can invest my time in watching each season as it’s released rather than waiting several years to see if a series finishes proper or just gets dumped randomly.
They should have given that money to One Piece so they could afford a real camera lens for season 2. Oh well, bring on the extreme fisheye with massive depth of field blur in dialogue scenes.
Go home Netflix, you’re drunk. The LA Avatar suuuuuucks. It’s like they intentionally hired the worst actors they could find. Also, no Toph. Fail.
“While fans of the new show might be disappointed at this early finale announcement”No fans would be disappointed, everyone expected this.
Yeah, I was one and done watching episodes of this series. Went back to review the original instead. Show runners are fucking clueless about what made the original so great.
Good, a Netflix show I’ll actually watch now because I know it won’t be canceled without any satisfying conclusion. More shows need complete plans. Have a story with a beginning, a middle and an end and make it. This open ended, write it as we go crap never works. Never.