Avatar: The Last Airbender is finally getting an animated movie
The 2010 live-action movie was a flop.
- Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a huge hit on Nickelodeon.
The popular Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series has seen a few adaptations, from M. Night Shyamalan's 2010 live-action flop to animated sequel series The Legend of Korra to an upcoming Netflix live-action show. Now, 15 years since the cartoon premiered on Nickelodeon, an animated film is in the works, and it'll be made by a new division of Nickelodeon dedicated to creating more Airbender content.
ViacomCBS announced development of the animated movie at its virtual presentation for upcoming streaming service Paramount Plus on Wednesday. Original series creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are co-chief officers at the newly launched Avatar Studios, so they can keep a close eye on the animated movie's development. The pair departed the Netflix project due to creative differences.
Paramount tweeted artwork to celebrate the launch of the new division.
The launch of Avatar Studios means that the fantastic universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender will expand into new series, short-form content, spin offs, and theatrical films on #ParamountPlus. pic.twitter.com/NfCsaaI8Bx
— Paramount+ (@paramountplus) February 24, 2021
Production of the movie is set to start later this year, with Paramount giving it a theatrical release, not a hybrid streaming premiere. No plot summary has been released yet, so hold tight for more details to emerge later in the year.
Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired on Nickelodeon in 2005 and ran for three seasons. It was so popular, the franchise expanded to an ongoing comics series, a prequel novel series, plus the live-action adaptations and animated sequel series. Its popularity continued to soar when the original series arrived on Netflix in 2020, though the creators' departure from Netflix's live-action adaptation likely won't bode well with fans.
