Oh, so this is the last airbender? We’ve heard that before.
Regardless of whether or not there will be more airbenders, Netflix has another last one on the way. The long-awaited live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is making its way to the streamer next year, and they’ve got a teaser trailer to prove it. Filled with the same impressive and expensive special effects that helped make its previous animation adaptation, One Piece, a reality, the teaser is our first glimpse of the latest, if not the last, Airbender.
Fans of the TV series will find a lot of recognizable characters here, including Aang (Gordon Cormier), an Avatar who is training his telekinetic powers so that he can manipulate the four elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. (Oh, god, we hope we’re right about that description). Those powers are on display in the trailer, which uses Netflix’s considerable budget to make the animated magic a live-action and computer-generated reality.
Based on the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name, Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is a long time coming. M. Night Shyamalan directed an adaptation of the series in 2010 that fans and critics hated in equal measure. The experience changed the course of Shyamalan’s career and the director seems much happier not directing $150 million fantasy movies. Nearly a decade later, in 2018, Netflix announced its series, which retained the help of series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who left the show over creative differences.
To its credit, Netflix has certainly not given up on turning animated properties into live-action epics. The overwhelmingly positive response to One Piece must give fans some hope for The Last Airbender. Will this truly be the last Airbender? Only time will tell.
Avatar: The Last Airbender streams on February 22.
