The Last Airbender Creators Step Away from Netflix Adaptation

Posted on by Javier Garay
Avatar: The Last Airbender, 2002-2005. (Photo via Nickelodeon)

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA), will no longer be working on the planned live-action series adaptation for Netflix. After they announced leaving the project on Wednesday, concern for where the series is headed is high.

What We Know:

  • DiMartino posted a rather lengthy blog on his website on Wednesday and his words only fueled fan’s worries. The beloved writer of the previous series wrote, “whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make”.
  • The talk over a live-action adaption for the cult classic cartoon has been around since 2018, so when both DiMartino and Konietzko came out and quit abruptly, it reassured fans their cited creative differences were considerable.

“In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped,” DiMartino wrote.

  • It’s not extremely uncommon for reboots or adaptations of popular franchises to move on with drastically different creative teams at the helm, but the creators’ remarks hit too close to home for some people, such as Percy Jackson fans. The author of Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan, published a similar blog post back in 2018, regarding issues on his own work during the early production of the live-action film adaption in 2010.
  • A Netflix spokesperson has spoken up since the creators’ decision, only to cite that they “have complete respect and admiration for Michael and Bryan and the story that they created in the Avatar animated series,” according to The Verge.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Well, friends… there you have it. Big sigh. 💔⬇️💔 I’m sure many of you will understandably want to know more and will ask me questions in the comments, here and on subsequent posts and live-streams and in-person encounters and everywhere else ad infinitum. I wish I could explain things in greater detail, but the above statement is really all I can say about the matter so I won’t be answering any of those. I encourage you to head over to my partner Michael DiMartino’s account to get his take on our departure too: @mike_dante_d Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, and I’m sorry our involvement in the live-action project did not work out. Time to get on with my life. Onward and upward. 💙 Love, Bryan #avatarthelastairbender #cocreators #michaeldimatino #bryankonietzko #bryke #atla #liveactionseries #netflix

A post shared by Bryan Konietzko (@bryankonietzko) on

  • Both Konietzko and DiMartino made statements to address fans and explain their frustrations about their recent move. They came to the same conclusion that their frustration didn’t lie in having complete control over the project, in fact, they were fine with collaborating, “as long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar”.

Their absence from the upcoming series will not affect its production moving forward with producer Dan Lin. It’s worthy to note the last time this particular scenario occurred, it was for a live-action film adaption of ATLA, and ultimately flopped without DiMartino and Konietzko.

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