“My first reaction after ‘Hell yeah!’ was ‘Holy s---! Do I really want to do this?'" Albert Kim reveals in his first interview about the live-action adaptation.
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| Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender | ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIX |
When Albert Kim first got the call from Netflix to work on the live-action series adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, his response was close to “Hell yeah!” The writer from Pantheon and executive producer from Sleepy Hollow had become a fan of the original Nickelodeon cartoon, which is considered sacred territory by many. He watched initially thinking he would need to explain the concepts to his daughter, but then became completely consumed with the saga himself. “The storytelling alone was just so epic and much beyond the audience it was targeted for,” he told Entertainment Weekly in December, marking his first interview on the new drama.
Then, to borrow a turn of phrase from the animated show, everything changed when… Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, the original creators of Avatar, departed the Netflix project after being involved for two years. Their public statements in 2020 came as a blow to the fandom. DiMartino mentioned he “couldn't control the creative direction of the series,” and while he acknowledged “Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good,” it ultimately wouldn’t be the show he or Konietzko set out to make.
While all parties appeared to part ways on good terms — Konietzko and DiMartino are now working on multiple other animated Avatar projects through Avatar Studios — Kim admits it “absolutely” felt daunting to continue the Netflix adaptation as showrunner without the original creators. “You'd have to be an idiot not to be intimidated a little bit,” he says. “My first reaction after ‘Hell yeah!’ was ‘Holy s---! Do I really want to do this? Is there a way to improve upon the original?’ Whenever you tackle something that's already beloved by millions of fans, you have to ask yourself those questions.”
His answer, if it’s not already obvious, was yes, he did still want to do this — for all the reasons he fell in love with the original in the first place. Fantasy TV epics like Game of Thrones and The Witcher are rooted in Western European folklore, but Avatar, Kim points out, is rooted in Asian culture. “That was incredibly rare. It still is,” he says. “A live-action version meant setting new benchmarks for representation by featuring an all Asian and Indigenous cast.”
Not to mention it's been more than 15 years since the original went off the air, though it spawned sequel series The Legend of Korra, best-selling comic books, video games, and the like. "That was really appealing to me, being able to bring this story to a new generation," Kim adds.
In a medieval-influenced world full of benders, those with the ability to manipulate one of the natural elements, Aang (Gordon Cormier) is the Avatar, a reincarnated being who can harness all four in order to maintain balance in the world. But this gentle and playful soul, who's been mysteriously missing for years, has finally emerged at a time when Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) is deep into the Fire Nation's war for domination. While being hunted by Ozai’s son, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), Aang must lean on his new friends, waterbender Katara (Kiawentiio) and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousley) of the Southern Water Tribe, in the hopes of honing his powers and restoring peace to the world.
Konietzko and DiMartino’s presence isn’t completely absent from the live-action series. Traces of them still exist. Kim sat down with the duo in the early days before their departure to pick their brains. He recalls, “It ran the range of really nerdy little things that no one except for diehard fans might wonder about — questions about Katara’s mom or Aang’s parentage — to bigger picture stuff about how to translate what made the original so special into a live-action version." At the same time, he stresses, "This is Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it is our version of Avatar: The Last Airbender."
The animated original told a story that played out over 20 challenge-of-the-week-style episodes in its first season before transitioning to a more serialized approach in its second and third seasons. The live-action Avatar will instead begin to adapt the main events with an eight-episode hourlong drama format for the initial run. As such, Kim explains, some events will have a strict one-to-one adaptation, while others will be remixed.
For one, "We don't start the show the way the animated series starts," Kim says. "That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series." For another, "We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama," he adds. "So I'm very curious to see what'll happen in terms of reaction to that."
In the end, the team's goal was to remain true to the original spirit of the animated series, while delivering a massive, sweeping fantasy epic. "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," Kim says. "We made sure to include all those in the show."
Avatar: The Last Airbender will premiere Thursday, Feb. 22, on Netflix.
Stream Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra on Paramount+ and Netflix! Try Paramount+ for FREE at ParamountPlus.com
Listen to the brand new podcast, Avatar: Braving the Elements!
Subscribe to the official Avatar: The Last Airbender YouTube channel!
H/T: @DiscussingFilm; special thanks to @KeydalisColo for the news!
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