Three new Avatar: The Last Airbender films are in the works at Paramount and Nickelodeon
The beloved anime-influenced cartoon aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008
Aux News Avatar: The Last Airbender
An ill-received 2010 M. Night Shyamalan adaptation of the beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender hasn’t caused studios to shy away from more film adaptations. In fact, Variety reports there are currently three separate projects in the works at Paramount and Nickelodeon based on Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s mystical adventure.
The original anime-influenced cartoon, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008, follows Aang, a young boy in a world where “benders” have the power to control, water, fire, earth, or air. As the Avatar, Aang is the one person in all the world who can manipulate all four substances. When siblings Katara and Sokka discover Aang encased in a chrysalis of sea ice alongside his sky bison, Appa, they set off on a wild trek to help Aang stop the power-hungry Fire Nation from destroying balance in the world.
The series has already received two spin-offs, one unsuccessful live-action series on Netflix, and another, more successful animated show The Legend of Korra, which followed Korra and her own journey to master her powers.
Paramount announced the production updates at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, but it didn’t share any details on proposed plot lines for the films, per Variety. (If you couldn’t guess, The A.V. Club’s vote is squarely in favor of a “My cabbages!” guy renaissance this time around.)
Lauren Montgomery, who worked on the original series, will direct the still-untitled projects, as well as two sequels that have already been green-lit. Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Konietzko and DiMartino will produce the movies alongside Eric Coleman.
“As original creators Mike and Bryan expand the Avatar universe with us, we’re keeping it all in the family with Lauren bringing the same kind of expert, beautiful work she did on the original series to her new directing duties on the forthcoming theatrical,” said Ramsey Naito, president of animation & development at Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation.
16 Comments
I have trouble with reading comprehension. Are the new films going to be animated? I see the word Animation used a bunch towards the end of the article, but I don’t want to assume beyond assuming I know nothing.
They are. Nickelodeon partnered with the creators back in 2020 to create Avatar studios. I guess this is what theyve been cooking up in the intervening years.
Let it die…
Let it live
Kind of jumping the gun on the live action series being unsuccessful there.
Yeah, is it even still happening?
After Cowboy Bebop it might be a safe bet.
It was unsuccessful in its creation. The project was scrapped.
Uh-oh, did anybody tell the cast who have started filming in November? https://observer.com/2021/11/netflix-avatar-last-airbender-full-cast-production-start-info-details/
Weren’t these announced over a year ago?Anyway, still betting these are adaptations of the comics. Gonna love how much the fandom will rage over The Search all over again.
I really hope it’s not. Not that I didn’t enjoy the comics, but I hope they dont StarWars avatar. This world is built to create new stories.
I agree, while it would be safer to adapt the comics, as they already exist and have been read and scrutinized and analyzed, there are so many other stories they could create. Would be enjoyable if they did something daring and failed rather than worry about fan backlash.
Especially since the “avatar” is a title that gets passed on similar to James Bond. The world is still familiar but can be tweaked in fun ways and people are already invested without nearly as much fear as ruining what came before
Is the arrow so he doesn’t forget where his furrow is located?
How can something be unsuccessful before it’s released?
I’m thinking they meant one unsuccessful live action movie