Ethan Rauch

Almost exactly 19 years to the day since the original animation series premiered on the Nickelodeon network, Netflix’s live-action adaptation of ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ is looking to have its first full season released this coming February 22nd.

For fans of the original Avatar, the mere idea of a live-action adaptation and all that it may entail is not by any means a new concept. It was in 2010 when ‘The Last Airbender’ came out, a movie adaptation of the original series’s first season. And to the standards of  both movie critics and hardcore fans of the original animated show, the movie was seen then, and is still seen to this day, as undeniably a catastrophic failure on all levels. According to the popular film critic site Rotten Tomatoes, over 190 critics have to this day given it a rating of just 5%, with 250,000+ audience members being a bit more generous with their ranking of 30%.

There were many reasons for the original movie flopping as hard as it did. An article published on the popular entertainment website ScreenRant delves into them more deeply, but the gist of the movie’s failures stemmed from things such as its white-washed and unfaithful ethnic casting, a lack of humor (as humor and light-heartedness was a theme in the original show), wooden dialogue and acting by most of its central cast of characters, and the execution of bad CGI/VFX for the main magical element of the show: the martial arts-based bending of the four elements.

Since the initial live-action adaptation of the show was such a bust, die-hard fans of the original show have been hesitant to embrace the idea of another live-action adaptation gracing any kind of screen. There have been frequent postings over the past few years in dedicated fan-spaces like the r/TheLastAirbender Reddit forum where the new live-action adaptation has been heavily discussed, and there has been a general feeling of anxiety, worry, and apprehension when it comes to fans’ outlook on the adaptation as a whole.

Many fans, including those seen commenting in this particular thread, have been citing reasons to explain their hesitation, like the original creators having departed the project, Netflix’s controversial history with their various live-action adaptations of different stories, the negative history of this particular story being adapted before, and some just not thinking that a story as great as the original ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ even needs to be re-told in any kind of format, animated or live-action.

In the references thread above, Reddit user Superb-Obligation858 says, “I’m certainly curious, maybe hopeful, but equally or more worried given the circumstances of the creators’ departure.”

A user, whose profile has since been deleted, also said in the above thread, “I’m one of those people that actually thinks they should leave well enough alone. The original animated series is amazing. It’s a completed story from start to finish. Frankly as much as live action would be cool there’s no way to have the same effect with simplicity and storytelling and action sequences as you would get with animation.”

To add even more fuel to the flame of apprehension many have had about the show in the recent years, a controversial remark about the live-action’s handling of one of the character’s behavioral traits early on in the narrative has taken the internet by storm. In an article posted to the news-site Variety, Zack Sharf references some of the remarks cast members Ian Ousley and Kiawentiio Tarbell recently made about the character of Sokka having some of his earlier sexist behaviors being toned down in this adaptation. Thousands of fans have seen this remark and have expressed their concern and bafflement at it across social media, citing that the character’s sexist behaviors are “important” and necessary, as it was a point of growth and maturation for Sokka to eventually overcome as he reached an understanding of how he was wrong in his beliefs.

All this being said, even with a turbulent history in being adapted to the live-action format, and a current controversy about some potential narrative decisions, there may be genuine reasons for fans to be optimistic and hopeful about the direction of this particular adaptation. To help paint a more thorough picture on the state of the adaptation, I was able to speak with Caleb Williams,  an insider-reporter who has covered the series extensively for many years of its development, on his perception regarding the future outlook for the Avatar franchise in this endeavor.

To learn more about Caleb William’s experience and history in the industry, and his relationship with the Avatar franchise, you can check out this other article I’ve written here.

When asked directly about his thoughts and feelings on the state of this live-action adaptation, with the idea of it being compared to the previous one which failed in almost every worthwhile measurement, Williams expressed that the behind-the-scenes status of this production being stable is one of many reasons why he’s personally optimistic.

“I think the reason comes down to the behind-the-scenes actions taken by this production team. Yes, most fans are worried because Bryan & Mike left the project on bad terms with Netflix,” Williams said. “But at the same time, Albert Kim (the showrunner of the project) who took over was selected by them originally as another show writer.”

“Kim also took great care to make the casting as authentic as possible, which was a major backlash of the film, by casting all Asian & Indigenous actors. The casting alone was leaps and bounds better than the film that it’s hard to ever call the Netflix series worse than the film simply on the casting alone.”

When asked about what specific aspect of this adaptation that he’s most excited about, Williams commented on the perspective many hold within the fandom that the 1st season of the original series was actually the weakest season of them all. And that this time around, the live-action adaptation can make logical decisions with the story that would only enhance the narrative all-around.

“What makes me excited is how season 1 of the animated series is actually considered the worse of the three original seasons. The show can expand upon later plot points and storylines in the first season that the original show had the wherewithal to do,” Williams said. “An example is using each of the past Avatars to help guide Aang as compared to just Roku. They can expand upon the relationship between Iroh and Ozai, which is completely skipped over in the original show. This will make the show new and different but also similar. That’s how you expand upon a preexisting material.”

Even though there are some positive ideas with the prospects of the adaptation, there was perhaps never going to be a scenario where it went off without some kind of hitch (just considering the IP’s history and all). As it was mentioned earlier, the live-action show has experienced a bit of a recent controversy with the speculation of how they’ll handle the imperfections and flaws of one character, that being Sokka: the older brother of Katara. When asked about his perspectives on this subject matter, Williams changed his tone a bit and had the following to say:

“The sexist undertones were more ignorant on [Sokka’s] part and never overtly offensive [in the original series]. It was just a stupid answer that ‘only boys can be warriors’. He learns Suki is a warrior without bending like him and is better than him. And then learns Katara is a master as a female. These things could have been explored further. Sokka could have gone through his mini-arc early in the season, but by the finale, he could have been offended/angry for Katara watching how Pakku treated her for ‘being a girl.’ Something of a self-reflection in himself.”

In his reflections, Williams spoke as well of his mild confusion at the implications that those who worked on this live-action adaptation may have about the nature of Sokka’s sexism in the original series.

“The original show wasn’t overtly crazy sexist, so I’m not sure what kind of ‘problematic’ conversations they were trying to stay clear of,” he said, in reference to Kiawentiio Tarbell describing some of the “iffy” moments of Sokka’s sexism in the original. “My position is that I’m okay if they removed it, but it was a missed opportunity to expand on it better than the [original] show did.”

Ultimately, because the show hasn’t come out yet, all we’re left to speculate on are things known to us publicly: the actors and actresses who have been cast, who the people are within the production team, brief still-images and videos from the show that are being slowly released now on social media channels, and some of the things that have been said officially on its behalf (like this article posted to IGN where Albert Kim and executive producer Jabbar Raisani break down the official two and a half minute long trailer).

But as Caleb Williams illustrated to me in our discussion, there are various reasons, especially when comparing this adaptation to the 2010 movie, that should allow fans to at the very least be cautiously optimistic on how things will turn out this time around. In a case like the Sokka controversy, that could also be a matter of a quote taken out of context, said incorrectly or unjustly, or something that does accurately represent how the series intends on addressing an idea (while keeping the same overarching story-beats in the original, but just re-contextualizing them in some way).

As the saying goes, only time will tell until we know the full picture.