‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Creators Leave Live-Action Netflix Series
Almost two years ago, Netflix announced that it was turning the acclaimed animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender into a “reimagined” live-action series — with the original show’s creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko on hand to help produce and showrun it.
Ever since then, hardcore Airbender fans have wondered what happened to the series. Today, DiMartino himself finally offered them an update in an open letter on his website. It’s not good news either; DiMartino says he and Konietzko are no longer working on Netflix’s Avatar remake:
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.
The show is still moving forward; DiMartino even says it “has the potential to be good.” It just won’t be what the original creators of the concept “envisioned or intended to make.”
If there is some small silver lining to this news it’s that DiMartino says this “this doesn’t mean the end of [his] involvement in the Avatar universe,” and noted that the renewed interest in both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra as the shows have premiered on streaming has been “inspiring.” So perhaps something good will come out of all this. As long as it’s better than the live-action Last Airbender movie, that’s a win for everyone.
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