Netflix’s upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series will embrace its role as an adaptation. And that means the series will not just purely retell a story already in existence. Instead, it will reimagine its source material to create the best new story possible. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Albert Kim revealed Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) won’t be a one-to-one match with the original animated series that people know and love. Instead, it will take the story threads at its disposal and make something all its own. An idea that he further detailed in a recent interview with SFX magazine.
Adapting, Remixing, and Evolving Avatar: The Last Airbender Series From Cartoon to Live-Action
Entertainment Weekly notes that in the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, “some events will have a strict one-to-one adaptation, while others will be remixed.” And Kim expands on the idea, sharing, “We don’t start the show the way the animated series starts… That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series.” Additionally, he offers, “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.”
Meanwhile, SFX magazine notes that “Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series will bring certain events from the original series’ lore to life for the first time.” And that Kim specifically shared an example, revealing that “The original series never shows the Fire Nation attacking the Southern Air Temple, and that’s something we do see in our version.”
Additionally, Kim reveals that main character Zuko’s sister and an antagonist of the series Azula will feature much more heavily in the first season of the live-action series than she did in the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon. Kim notes that he and the writers “had the advantage of knowing a lot of things that are ahead” and “We play to that. We know how big a character Azula becomes in the series, so we had the benefit of hindsight in fleshing out her character and being able to tell a story with her in it in season 1.”
Change Can Be Scary, But It Can Also Be Good
These changes only make sense because, of course, the live-action ATLA has eight hour-long episodes to tell its tale, whereas the animated series had a much different format in play. And, as Kim rightly notes, knowing the whole story this time around can serve to make some fascinating alterations. But these evolutions might still come as a surprise to long-time fans. Still, even if the live-action series will alter the course of some Avatar: The Last Airbender stories, it definitely feels like the right choice for this adaptation.
While the idea of unraveling and remixing might sound scary to some, to me, it sounds exciting. The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series already told its story. We do not need to retell it in the exact same way. Allowing live-action ATLA to make smart changes and bring some novel story into the mix will give a true reason for bringing the series to a new medium. But happily, Kim also notes, “All of our writers are also fans of the original, so they drew upon their own personal experiences and the things that they love the best. We made sure to include all those in the show.”
Fingers crossed your favorite details made the cut.
Avatar: The Last Airbender releases on Netflix on February 22, 2024.