Avatar: The Last Airbender, the anime-inspired live-action series, will be able to tell the story of the four nations: Water. Earth. Fire. Air after Netflix renewed it for a further two seasons.
The streamer has handed the show a two-season renewal order to conclude the story of Aang’s journey to become the Avatar.
It comes after the show premiered on Netflix on February 22 and recorded 41.1M views in its first 11 days, topping its TV list for the last two weeks and being on track to enter its top ten most-watched list over its first three months.
The plan is to film these two seasons – seasons two and three – in close succession in order to mitigate the fact that child actors tend to grow up quickly.
The series comes from Rideback, whose boss Dan Lin, an exec producer on the series, was recently named Netflix’s new film chief, replacing Scott Stuber. Albert Kim is showrunner, having replaced original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in 2020.
Its three season run will mirror the structure of the animated series, which featured three books across three seasons to Aang’s story that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005, and became a hit on Netflix during the early stages of the pandemic.
It’s not clear how many episodes will be produced for season two and three. Season one features eight episodes.
Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world that is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. “Benders” are people that have the ability to telekinetically manipulate and control the element corresponding to their nation, using gestures based on Chinese martial arts. The “Avatar” is the only individual with the ability to bend all four elements.
The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar.
Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a quest to save the world and fight back against the onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way. Ken Leung and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also star.
Kim and Lin exec produce produce alongside Jabbar Raisani, Lindsey Liberatore and Michael Goi. Goi and Raisani directed episodes in season one alongside Roseanne Liang and Jet Wilkinson.
It is Netflix’s second anime-inspired live-action hit after One Piece, following a rocky start in the genre with Cowboy Bepop. The streamer highlighted it as one of its latest successful adaptations, coming on the back of other IP-driven series such as The Sandman, Wednesday, Arcane and Sweet Tooth.
The creative team behind the series is keen to expand the story. Avatar executive producer and director Jabbar Raisani told Deadline that there’s stuff that they filmed that didn’t make it into season one.
“If we get another season, then we will certainly have those things, because I know what we missed now and I know how to do better the second time around,” he said. “The animated series is a really good guide…for where the show can go.”
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