“Avatar: The Last Airbender” has a second chance at life after Netflix announced its plans to adapt the critically acclaimed animated series into a live-action series.
Nickelodeon aired the animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” for three sea- sons from 2005 to 2008. The story followed a young boy named Aang, who, as the Avatar, can control the four elements-earth, water, air and fire-and ultimately bring peace to these four “nations.”
The first attempt to make “Avatar: The Last Airbender” as a live-action project was directed by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010.
The film was met with crit- icism, including whitewashing the characters and employing poor special effects.
Since fans were disappoint- ed with the outcome of the movie, the idea of a trilogy was dropped.
The new Netflix series is slated to start production in 2019 and premiere in 2020. The original “Avatar: The Last Airbender” creators, Michael
Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, will be executive producers on the new series.
In a press release with DiMartino and Konietzko, they both said they hope to bring the original dream of their Avatar world to life and cast the appropriate actors.
Jennifer Rodriguez, junior psychology major, said she liked the original series, especially the character’s use of “bending,” and hopes the new series is created right this time around.
“I liked the idea of being able to bend different elements and the impact on the world that could have,” Rodriguez said. “I’m curious to see how they are going to do it in live-action. They will need amazing graphic designers for the bending.”
When the news of another live-action attempt surfaced, fans were torn. Some said the series would fail while others said they are ecstatic the series gets another chance.
Dr. Andrea Scott, associate professor of marketing, said for the new series to be a success, the producers need to listen to their audience.
“I would encourage (the producers) to be more authentic to what the animated series was,” Scott said. “They should know what their target audience is and what they want. Hopefully, they will learn lessons from the failure of the (previous) movie.”
Bryce Acosta, sophomore computer science major, said he is curious to see the movie’s take on the spiritual and fighting aspects of the show.
“Its take on the Spirit World should be pretty cool, and hope-fully they have well-choreographed fighting,” Acosta said. “I’ll watch the first few episodes and give it a chance. Maybe I’ll even finish, as I have been waiting for something to binge-watch again.”
As 2019 draws nearer, production details will start to be revealed.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” is considered one of the best-animated shows, accord- ing to the website IGN, who publishes the latest news in mainstream media.
Netflix is known for its top-quality original shows and as the production date gets closer “Avatar: The Last Airbender” fans will continue to hope the new series lives up to their expectations.
