“My first thought was, ‘Why? What is there I could do or say with the story that wasn’t done or said in the original?’” wrote Kim, who first tells a sweet story of watching the original Avatar along with his young daughter years ago. “A:TLA had only grown in popularity and acclaim over the last decade and a half, which is a testament to how complete and resonant a narrative experience it had been. So if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” Kim goes on to make several arguments for the purpose of a live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender—unsurprisingly, none of them being that Netflix wants to make a boatload of money off of this very popular story property (a primary reason for the making of most if not all commercial productions and one producers tend not to highlight to the target audience). Instead, Kim gives some other reasons: First, he speaks about the evolution of VFX technology that could “bring a rich new visual dimension to a fantastic world.” While this argument is often based on the flawed logic that live-action is superior to animation, it will be exciting to see elements of the Avatar world (I’m looking at you, Appa) brought to live-action life. There’s no arguing that the mediums have different strengths and weaknesses. Next, Kim highlights the opportunity to “reimagine a story that had originally been told in self-contained, half-hour episodes as an ongoing serialized narrative”—something he has said before. It feels inaccurate to call The Last Airbender something other than an ongoing, serialized story, as it is clear from the beginning that DiMartino and Konietzko have a larger story to tell, but this does give us some insight into what format the live-action adaptation might take. Namely, that the episodes will probably be longer than a half hour, and that Kim will not be afraid to lean into some of the less plot-driven moments of the story. “That meant story points and emotional arcs we’d loved in the original could be given even more room to breathe and grow,” elaborated Kim. Will you be watching the Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender? Have you seen the original? Let us know in the comments below.
