“Water, Earth, Fire, Air.” Avatar: The Last Airbender fans have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Netflix has decided to pick up this phenomenon and create a movie after the hit television series. The big question is will the creators follow the script or make up things as they go?
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the story of a young boy named “Aang” who is the next Avatar. The Avatar has the ability to use all four elements of nature. When the fire nation attacked many of the other nations were left in poverty. Aang’s job is to keep peace within all four nations and defeat the fire lord along the way he makes up a team to help him. Katara is the water bender of the group Aang’s love interest; she is smart, beautiful, and emotional. Her older brother Sokka is the comic relief of the group and is also the brains, although he has no bending powers he is probably one of the strongest and smartest members of the team avatar. Along the way the three friends find an earth bender named Toph, Toph is around Aang’s age and she is blind but that doesn’t stop her from being the most powerful earth bender in the world. She is Aang’s earth-bending mentor with a sassy attitude and a lovable rough personality. And then there’s Zuko: Prince of the Fire Nation, his father banished him from the kingdom after he disagreed with one of his decisions and his goal is to capture the avatar and restore order. Zuko’s character arc is something a lot of fans take pride in, in the show so they’re looking forward to this in the movie, it will be interesting to see if they stay true to the show or change him in the movie.
To be fair there was a film that came out in 2010 that was a live-action version of Avatar but it was rated one of the worst movies created. One of the most beloved themes in the show is the inclusion of ethnic people so when they saw the actors that were not of the same race as their favorite characters fans were upset. A lot of the characters in the movie did not follow the same character arcs they had in the show. It was a major disappointment for watchers which is why this new film is a big deal because fans are riding on this version to be good. In the new version of the movie, all the actors are of the same ethnicity in the roles that they’re playing.
Will this new adaptation disappoint? The watchers of Avatar are very invested in this process and avatar studios are working hard to make up for their last film. Netflix will definitely be catering to a large audience. There is no set date for its release and we’ve seen no trailers so in that case there’s nothing to judge at the moment. This is definitely something to look forward to in the future and in the movie industry as a whole.