Avatar: The Last Airbender Creators Tease “Very Ambitious” Plans to Expand The Universe

Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in various places, is a Nickelodeon Animation Studios animated television series. The series follows twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, as well as his friends Katara, Sokka, and later Toph, in their quest to put an end to the Fire Nation’s war against the rest of the world. It also tells the story of Zuko, the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, who is attempting to reclaim his lost dignity by capturing Aang with the help of his wise uncle Iroh, and his ambitious sister Azula.

Avatar: The Last Airbender was a box office hit, and its characters, cultural references, art direction, soundtrack, humor, and themes gained critical acclaim. These include topics like war, genocide, imperialism, authoritarianism, and free will, which are rarely addressed in young entertainment. The show is frequently regarded as one of the all-time great television series. Five Annie Awards, a Genesis Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Kids’ Choice Award, and a Peabody Award were given to the film.

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko recently discussed Avatar’s promising future.

Avatar departed just when the world needed it the most. But now, the beloved cartoon series is back — and it has the potential to be even greater than before.

On the Braving the Elements podcast (via ComicBook.com), Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko hinted at the scale of the newly founded Avatar Studios.

According to Konietzko, the two are working on a “really big, multi-tiered” strategy that will delve into the “deep, largely untouched history and future of the Avatar planet.”

The Avatar universe’s plans are so ambitious that DiMartino quipped that we could be in for decades of storytelling.

“We have all the ideas, and in the ideal world, we’ll get to explore and make them all throughout the years, but it’ll take some time. If we finish all of this, you’ll just be podcasting for the next 20 years or so “According to DiMartino.

Though each mainline series only scratched the surface of a world dense with lore and untold histories, Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series The Legend of Korra were hugely popular ventures on Nickelodeon and launched a multi-million dollar empire, each mainline series only scratched the surface of a world dense with lore and untold histories. The creators now have considerable support to help them realize their ambition.

But it’s been a long journey to get here. The original series premiered in 2005, and a live-action film directed by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010 received mixed reviews. DiMartino and Konietzko were even hired by Netflix to make a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they quit the project in August 2020 and returned to Nickelodeon to form Avatar Studios.

In March, ViacomCBS announced that “a wide range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form,” would be available on the streaming service Paramount+.

Things appear to be looking up – and the brand might potentially expand into an MCU-style universe with spinoffs, shorts, and entirely new series that will set the world ablaze once more. It’s never been a better moment to be a fan of Avatar.

Looking for a good movie to watch this month? This July, check out what’s new on Netflix and Disney Plus.