The Last Airbender was a show many young anime fans watched when they were younger, and so the recent news about the live-action series has put many fans on edge. After three animated seasons, an inaccurate live-action movie, comics, and a follow-up series, the Avatar fandom believed that their favorite show was complete. 

Back in 2018, Netflix tweeted that they were creating a live-action series of The Last Airbender, much to the surprise and horror of many fans. Most of them assumed it would be like the movie, shortened and inaccurate. Hope returned, however, when these fans heard that the creators of the original series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, would be returning to work on the show. 

Unfortunately, after two years of work on the show, in early August, the creators announced that they would be leaving the project due to “creative differences” with Netflix. 

Konietzo clarified, “to be clear, this was not a simple matter of getting our way. Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we could have happily embraced them. However, we ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series.” 

Konietzko’s and DiMartino’s feelings about this adaptation parallel how Rick Riordan felt about the horrifyingly inaccurate Percy Jackson movies, and we all know how badly that went. Since the announcement, there has been no news about the show or hints about the cast. This reporter is more anxious than excited about the future of the Avatar series, even though she will definitely be watching and critiquing it.