s future AvatarThe man with the bent body, not the man in blue, was a little undecided at the moment. We do know that Paramount and Nickelodeon are developing three animated movies, with original creators Brian Konietzko and Michael DiMartino at the helm.One of them is even about the last airbender The beloved cast of characters, Aang and company, will apparently launch in 2025. There are rumors that another series is planned that will follow the next incarnation, who is theoretically supposed to be born as an Earthbender.
Still, it’s exciting to know there’s a lot of work going on, even if in most cases we don’t know what that is. But it’s also been a while since we visited the animated world of Avatar (for obvious reasons, we’re not counting the Netflix episodes).this The Legend of Korrais the sequel series that follows Avatar and has been completed for a full decade, and while there are a lot of good things in it, it also has countless problems.
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I want to clarify right off the bat that I am not a Korra hater, especially talking about this character here. I thought her character was very well written and felt very different from Aang in Avatar. My issues mostly come from the way The Legend of Korra builds its world, and there are several aspects to it.
It’s no secret that Korra had production issues, low ratings, and Nickelodeon’s hesitancy to let the team do what they do best, making the situation even more precarious. The Last Airbender was originally planned to have three seasons from the outset and tell a complete story in each season, but Korra wasn’t so lucky and had to tell a new story in each subsequent season. But even with that, I feel like one of the biggest problems comes from how each season ignores what came before.
Season three did rely on major plot points from season two to tell its own story, but the details didn’t matter, and a similar situation happened again in season four. It feels strange and disjointed, especially considering how successful The Last Airbender has been at setting up important story details since its first season. Again, it’s hard to set things up if you don’t know where you’re going, but why completely ignore what happened before?
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I think this, in turn, hurts some of the world-building. For example, Toph’s development is one that I, like many others, find very frustrating – how does this rebellious, free-spirited Earthbender end up forming an actual police force? It felt like an insult to her character, and it felt like there was no real way to correct it without planning ahead.
In turn, the show’s politics get messier. The Last Airbender took a surprisingly nuanced approach to topics like colonialism and fascism, while Korra sticks too closely to our own time and place without the same level of criticism. I’m not quite sure this is an issue that can be easily addressed in a Gaang-centric movie, but I’m eager for the new sequel series to think more deeply about this, as it was part of the appeal of the original.
The world of Avatar has always been bigger than what we see, and with the release of these three movies, we’ll soon be able to see even more of it. I just hope that, after all this time and with the last major project being such a mess, the original creators haven’t lost touch.