In other words: If the events of ATLA constituted the most exciting battles with the highest stakes to that point in this world’s history, as we’re led to believe, then anything before them will feel like a letdown by comparison. As Ben Lindbergh wrote last year about the problems with prequels, “Storytellers typically start at the most interesting stage of their stories, when some kind of conflict is happening.” Sounds like ATLA! “If whatever happened before the first episode were so interesting,” Ben continued, “the story would’ve started there instead.”
Unless the movie plans to adapt the well-received Kyoshi novels, it should avoid journeying to the pre-Aang past. That being said, the way my attention span functions, I’m gonna need those moving pictures on my TV. Kellen Becoats : I’m vaguely sure there are already comics that explain some of the time gap between The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Besides, as the Game of Thrones arms race has shown: Where there’s well-crafted lore, there’s ample opportunity for prequels. Also, we’ve already seen the avatar aesthetic fast-forwarded into the steampunk age let’s wind it back to something more primeval. That would probably erase my hopes for a Zuko-Ursa on-screen moment to rejoice/cry over, though.Īlison Herman : I like the idea of Before Aang! Let’s see the Air Nomads in their prime. It would make sense for the movie to follow adult OG Team Avatar during the post- Imbalance and pre- Korra period. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if DiMartino and Konietzko would rather not touch any of that and instead allow everything that’s already been done to exist as is.
Kaelen Jones : Personally, I would love to see the movie navigate the time period immediately following ATLA, especially considering the comic book series offers The Promise as a guide. Let’s dive in: Let’s establish the basic timeline: Should the new Avatar movie be set Before Aang, After Korra, or sometime in between their two series? So, in honor of Nickelodeon Week, the staff at The Ringer decided to offer some unsolicited advice to the Avatar Studios team, along with predictions for what could happen in the franchise at large. The studio plans to roll out a new catalog of films and television series first on the agenda is a new animated theatrical film, set to start production later this year.ĭetails on the new movie remain sparse, however-the public is still in the dark on what the movie will be about, or which characters it will feature. Seven months later, the pair emerged with an exciting announcement: ViacomCBS, Nickelodeon’s parent company, would create Avatar Studios, an entire new production house based completely around The Last Airbender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra. That film ran into some roadblocks last year when Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko dropped out of the project, citing creative differences with Netflix. A new movie is imminent-and we’re not talking about Thursday’s news that Netflix has cast the stars of its upcoming live-action adaptation. Rejoice, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans: The Avatar universe is about to expand in a big way.
Throughout the week, we’ll be publishing essays, features, and interviews to get at the heart of what made Nick so dang fun-and now so nostalgic. To mark the anniversary, The Ringer is looking back at Nick’s best-ever characters and the legacy of the network as a whole. Introduced on August 11, 1991, under the brand of “Nicktoons,” Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show would quickly become hits and change the course of animation, television, and popular culture at large. Thirty years ago this week, a rising but not-yet-ubiquitous kids network by the name of Nickelodeon launched its first original animated series.