One question that has been asked a lot in recent years since Avatar: The Last AirMaster became a hit 15 years later on Netflix is whether or not the service continued with the live action screen that had been announced a few years ago. the animated series reached the platform.
The answer is yes, but unfortunately it has reappeared on the news for the wrong reasons. One of the reasons enthusiasts expected the series to be smart was because original avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were on board, but recently distanced the project. DiMartino published a letter that seemed to imply that they had no artistic about the direction of their own series:
“I also sought the wisdom of the stoic philosophers who made the difference between what is under us and what is not. I learned that it may not be the artistic direction of the series, but I can tell how I responded. So I decided to leave the project. It was the ultimate complicated professional resolution I’ve had to make, and in fact I didn’t do it lightly, but it was obligatory for my happiness and artistic integrity.”
So the show’s dead, right?
No, that’s not the case, and Netflix was quick to explain this after DiMartino and Konietzko left.
“We have absolute respect and admiration for Michael and Bryan and the story they created in the animated series Avatar. Although they chose to leave the genuine action project, we are confident in the team and their adaptation.”
The screen is still moving. Dan Lin and his Rideback team seem to be up to the task now, and Nickelodeon is still on board because it turns out that they, not DiMartino and Konietzko, have the rights to make that happen. And who wouldn’t need a massive Netflix check, right?
The challenge is that the series has two wonderful opposite things that worried enthusiasts even before this reorganization. The first is that the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series is as good as possible, so it’s hard to know if an adaptation would load something into it, rather than just having the chance to remove it. The time is the lifestyle of the film M. Night Shyamalan Last Airbender which is etched into the brains of enthusiasts, if they have not tried to block it completely, and therefore no one has the taste of a genuine action attempt.
I don’t know what to do with all this. It turns out that the series shouldn’t go ahead without its original creators, and if they don’t agree with the direction of the series, that actually turns out to be an explanation for why to be nervous about it. Netflix is known for taking something smart, looking to upload it and not going so well (I would cite tracking the stopped progression seasons and the film The Breaking Bad Trail as examples of that). Again, they also assumed the most unlikely responsibilities and made them brilliant (a live adaptation of Witcher that attracts fans of e-books and games). Then who knows.
We won’t know anything until we start hearing about the broadcast or watching progress. But yes, skepticism turns out to be the right position right now.
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I write about video games, television and the Internet.