Next year’s live action adaptation of the beloved animated series,Avatar: The Last Airbender, has been made without the inclusion of original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Now, the man in charge of the live action series, Albert Kim, has opened up about the pressures that came with going it alone, admitting it “absolutely” felt daunting when the creators decided not to be involved in theNetflixseries.
Speaking withEW, Kim says he felt “intimidated” after DiMartino and Konietzko walked away from the adaptation after two years of development.
“You’d have to be an idiot not to be intimidated a little bit. 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.”
That intimidation no doubt grew afterDiMartino and Konietzko released a statementsaying they “couldn’t control the creative direction of the series.” However, while the original creators are no longer involved in Netflix’sAvatar: The Last Airbender, Kim reveals that he was able to work alongside them in the early days of the show.
“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."
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Albert Kim Says the Netflix Adaptation Will Be ‘Our Version of Avatar: The Last Airbender’
Avatar: The Last Airbender
However, while he was able to pick the brains of the original creators, Kim states “This isAvatar: The Last Airbender, but it is our version ofAvatar: The Last Airbender.” With this in mind, the live action versionwill make some changesto the source material along the way. Continuing, Kim reveals that Netflix’sAvatar: The Last Airbenderwill start from a different point in the story when compared to its animated counterpart, while other events will be “a strict one-to-one adaptation.”
“We don’t start the show the way the animated series starts. That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series…We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama. So I’m very curious to see what’ll happen in terms of reaction to that.”
One crucial element that Kim was determined to get right was the casting andAvatar: The Last Airbender’sroots in “Asian culture.”
“That was incredibly rare. It still is. A live-action version meant setting new benchmarks for representation by featuring an all Asian and Indigenous cast.”
Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Gordon Cormier, Dallas Liu, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Daniel Dae Kim,Avatar: The Last Airbenderfollows a young Air Nomad named Aang, as he reawakens to a world ravaged by war. Together with his newfound friends Sokka and Katara, he embarks on an action-packed quest to take his rightful place as the next AVATAR.
Avatar: The Last Airbenderis scheduled to premiere on July 14, 2025, onNetflix. Check out the trailer below:
