Thanks to a 2004 trailer, some people had already seen plenty of Avatar: The Last Airbender's unaired pilot before Nickelodeon released it in 2020.
Although Nickelodeon only released the unaired pilot episode for Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2020, some people accidentally saw pieces of it much earlier. Given the immense popularity of Avatar now, which was significant enough to earn the new Avatar Studios its spot at Nickelodeon, it's hard to imagine a time when the series was just starting out. Nevertheless, in 2004, nobody had heard of Avatar and its world of benders yet, and the show was still in flux enough that its original pilot episode didn't even make the cut.
Avatar's existing pilot sees Katara and Sokka discovering Aang and Appa frozen in their iceberg for the first time, as well as Zuko charting a course for the Southern Water Tribe in order to fulfill his mission of capturing the Avatar. As with any series, this first episode is important for setting up the show's world, premise, and core characters. Avatar: The Last Airbender's unaired pilot accomplishes the same thing, but with some notable differences, mainly the fact that it skips over Katara and Sokka's discovery of Aang and the group's subsequent departure from the South Pole. Aside from this, it also reveals some more minor differences, such as the fact that Katara's name was originally Kya.
Nickelodeon kept the unaired pilot under wraps for a long time, but some people saw parts of it much earlier thanks to a 2004 trailer. The trailer bears Avatar's signature opening voiceover by Katara laid over scenes from the pilot episode, as well as some quick-cut action sneak peeks. However, it's not the show's canonical pilot that's used in the trailer; it's almost exclusively content from the unaired one and its also-unused Avatar: The Last Airbender title sequence.
It's typical for show trailers to incorporate a lot of footage from the first episode since it's relatively spoiler-free. It's also not unheard of for some trailer-revealed footage to wind up missing from a show or movie's final cut when it comes out - a recent example of this is Ghostbusters: Afterlife. However, because the entire pilot which the Avatar creators originally planned didn't make the cut, the trailer almost appears to be advertising a different show. While the character designs and music remain largely the same, the trailer also includes entire characters that never ended up in the show, such as Zuko's hawk and some of the bending masters featured in the title sequence. All told, however, it looks like Avatar: The Last Airbender's original plan ended up staying the same for the most part between the unaired and aired pilot episodes.
For viewers who remembered seeing Nickelodeon's trailer for Avatar back in 2004, the release of the full unaired pilot likely triggered some fuzzy memories. While the trailer obviously doesn't cover the entire plot of the scrapped episode, it uses exclusively unaired footage and showcases many of the original pilot's memorable scenes. Thus, it's almost like these people accidentally saw the Avatar: The Last Airbender's unaired pilot episode nearly two decades before anybody else did.
You can watch the Avatar: The Last Airbender pilot episode here!
Watch 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!
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More Nick: Nickelodeon Establishes Avatar Studios; Announces Animated 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Movie!
Original source: ScreenRant.
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