Avatar: The Last Airbender went through this major change that doomed The Witcher TV series.
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Without a doubt, Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most popular animated action television series in the world. While fans finally seem close to getting the long-awaited live-action adaptation of the beloved series, there’s a catch.
Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Initially, when Netflix announced the series in 2018, it was revealed that the series’ original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were hired as executive producers and showrunners. However, they left the project due to creative differences in 2020.
Fast forward to August 2021, Albert Kim was officially announced as a writer, executive producer, and showrunner. With the expectations very high, Kim recently made an announcement that disheartened some fans: some parts of the show will not be a 1-to-1 adaptation in order to “make sense for a serialized drama.” The series will be released on Netflix on February 22, 2024.
Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s showrunner made a disappointing announcement
A snap from Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer. Credit: Netflix
Albert Kim, the writer, executive producer, and showrunner of Avatar: The Last Airbender recently appeared for an interview with Entertainment Weekly and explained how the series will progress,
“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. 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.”
Basically, this means that not all the parts of the series will be directly adapted from the animated series as they had to alter some parts “to make sense for a serialized drama.” In the past, The Witcher TV series also got the same treatment and the end result disappointed many fans. So fans are now worried that this factor might butcher the show.
Albert Kim assures that the show will be entertaining
A still from Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s trailer
Further in the interview, Kim explained that the series will have some elements from the original show as the team working on the series is a huge fan of the original franchise,
“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.”
The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series was released in the form of “Books”. Book 1 consisted of 20 episodes, however, the first season of the live-action version only consists of 8 episodes, which will be released on February 22, 2024, on Netflix.
