Avatar: The Last Airbender showrunner Albert Kim has purposefully avoided watching the previous live-action adaptation by Shyamalan.
Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender series isn’t the first time the iconic animated show has made the leap to live-action. M. Night Shyamalan previously adapted the series with The Last Airbender in 2010, but Avatar fans have been eager to forget that it even exists.
Albert Kim, the showrunner behind the upcoming Netflix series, told Entertainment Weekly that he has actively avoided watching Shyamalan’s Avatar movie. “I’ll tell you something, I never watched the Shyamalan movie,” Kim said. “There was a period of time where I thought I should watch it, but then I thought, I don’t really want those images in my head as I start to go forward with our version of this project. So I avoided it purposefully.“
Although Kim never watched the movie, he is aware of the criticisms the movie faced. “I knew what fans didn’t like about it in general,” Kim said, “but those kinds of pitfalls weren’t hard to avoid. For instance, an authentic version of the casting, that’s something that we would’ve done regardless. And, to be fair, Shymalan’s movie was made at a time when the technology hadn’t caught up yet to what the world deserved. So I knew that the VFX was going to be much better than whatever they did anyway.” Will Kim ever watch the Shyamalan Avatar movie? “No, I’ve gone this far,” he said. “I’m just going to skip it. I don’t want to. [EP Michael Goi] kept trying to tease me into watching. I think I’m going to carry through with my track record of not having seen it.“
“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. 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,” reads the official description. “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, 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 and Katara, siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai. But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko 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.“
Avatar: The Last Airbender stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as General Iroh, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, and Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula. The live-action series will debut on Netflix on February 22, 2024.