The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated film has officially announced its theatrical release date, along with the production staff.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is back, baby! Everyone’s favourite air bending boy is back and not in the live-action way which has failed so far (many hopes on the Netflix series!). CinemaCon 2023 detailed that this will be an animated film based directly on the series, and apparently, we will be getting three of these films. The target release date for this first movie will be October 10, 2025—a bold but reasonable goal to hit. A new division of Nickelodeon called Avatar Studios was announced as the team in charge of bringing these films to fruition.
The Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series ended back in 2008, which consisted of three emotionally-ridden seasons. Then, The Legend of Korra appeased a lot of fans with the next avatar in the timeline, consisting of four seasons and ended back in 2014. With one of the biggest gaps in the animated canon, these three films will cause a riot! For now, we will just have to cross our fingers that the Netflix live-action series is not a total nightmare like the 2010 film we do not speak of.
Lauren Montgomery will direct the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie; she worked on many big animated films and shows such as Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and a couple of episodes of Voltron: Legendary Defender. Series co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino will produce alongside Eric Coleman.
The big question is: what will this first film be about? Not much has been said other than it will feature Aang and his friends. So, we can assume the ‘ol gang is having a reunion: Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph and Zuko—all of them a little bit more grown-up, perhaps. The gap between the two different Avatar animated shows left a lot of content to be filled, so we may be finally getting the chance to witness some of that juicy tea that only fan fics could spill.
These animated films will be closely worked on by Avatar Studios, which is “a newly formed division designed to create original content spanning animated series and movies based on the beloved world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.” Konietzko and DiMartino will be in charge of this department, and thank god they will be—if it ain’t broke, you do not need to reinvent the wheel.
Essentially, this studio will be functioning like Kevin Feige’s Marvel Entertainment studio, minus the Sony/Marvel Comics debacle. So, Avatar Studios will be expanding the mythology and universe through this one studio. Even though Konietzko and DiMartino left the Netflix show, that series seems to be in a weird position.
Either way, I am glad the world is finally giving the Avatar-verse more opportunities to grow. It has been a pivotal series in my life and is the reason a lot of my family and I manage to stay still connected—just to talk about the lore of the cabbage stall merchant! The official Avatar: The Last Airbender social accounts also posted a teaser of the release date. And if you have not started watching this series at all, definitely catch it on Netflix—great for almost all ages!
