Avatar: The Last Airbender Live-Action Netflix Show Announced -

[ComeoutandJULAY]

So with the two creators gone from the Netflix show does that mean Avatar is now a zombie franchise?

Then again, I don't think it's the type of property that's franchisable. It's not like some pop culture icon with universally recognizable characters like Star Wars or anything. They tried their best to keep it going with Korra, but even then they proved that the original series was lightning in a bottle whose success couldn't really be repeated. If they wanted to make another show, they probably should have had it take place in a universe separate from A:TLA. Sure, it would have still drawn a shit ton of comparisons to their previous work, but at least it would have proven that Avatar wasn't all they were capable of while keeping people's good memories of the original show intact.

 

[Basil II]

Oh boy.
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I've always found the "whitewashing" controversies around this show funny. There is no concept of "whiteness" in this show but many of the characters (particularly the Fire Nation) have white skin color. And those same people were the ones oppressing and conquering all the other tribes LMAO.
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Also, people tried saying that because the Avatar characters were inspired by various "Asian" and Inuit culture, they "can't" have light eyes or light hair colors. I wonder how they'd try to explain this Uyghur/Chinese boy. Is he no longer "Asian" in their eyes because of his features?
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>uyghurs
>chinese

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Those two can get fucked anyway, I mean if they actually had good ideas they wouldn't have gone along with a live action remake of a cartoon that hasn't aged at all and still holds up.

I still wonder how the fuck they came for that live-action crap a decade ago?

 

[One Man Bland]

Oh boy.
View attachment 1519126
I've always found the "whitewashing" controversies around this show funny. There is no concept of "whiteness" in this show but many of the characters (particularly the Fire Nation) have white skin color. And those same people were the ones oppressing and conquering all the other tribes LMAO.
View attachment 1519193
Also, people tried saying that because the Avatar characters were inspired by various "Asian" and Inuit culture, they "can't" have light eyes or light hair colors. I wonder how they'd try to explain this Uyghur/Chinese boy. Is he no longer "Asian" in their eyes because of his features?
View attachment 1519206

Here’s the full article for anyone curious: https://fandomwire.com/exclusive-why-avatar-the-last-airbenders-creators-really-left-netflix/ And the archive: http://archive.md/cVoHJ

It’s one of those “anonymous insider” deals, so take it with a grain of salt.

The first point I could buy regardless though. This shit is already going to be expensive, and the article made the same point I did about how Bryke likely have no clue how to manage funds for a life action series. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bryke was also pushing for costly methods like filming at international locations and Netflix, after remembering the shit show that was Sense 8, went “HA HA no”

Second point is a little harder to believe, since after the Shyamalan version it’d be marketing suicide to push for a cracker main cast. But if true, I suspect that there might be a little more to it than just “Netflix wants Zack Effron and Danny DeVito to play Zuko and Iroh” since the article later mentions that Netflix was suggesting that the remake age up all the main cast.

I think the big problem is that ATLA is just super hard to cast in live action just because the nature of the setting and plot. Even factoring out ethnicity, you still gotta find a group of child actors who either already know or can quickly learn a ton of complicated martial arts for scenes that can’t be done by stunt doubles, who can also act well, and act well when they're going to be reacting to the empty air standing in for CG attacks, locations, & animals a lot, and this case are likely gonna need to be a couple years younger (or extremely baby faced) to factor in for the growth spurts that will inevitably happen for the several years production will take to film a plot that takes place within the span of 1 year. I’m not even sure aging up everyone would actually solve either, since ATLA’s story only works because the main characters are all fairly young kids, and if you try to write around the growth spurts by extending the timeline you lose the tension that comes from the rapidly ticking clock of having a short deadline to end the war.

It sounds like Netflix wasn’t making any specific demands, but might’ve thought it would be realistic to cast a wide net and aim for an older group of child actors, while Bryke wanted to get it exact.

Spoiler: IMO

Personally I’m of the mind that studios should find actors who best represent the characters as they were intended to be portrayed, and the fact that they’re having trouble it’s a sign that this isn’t a good idea. If anything race-bending, no matter which way it’s going, only encourages laziness and stagnation since studios act like they can just keep rehashing the same shit if they reskin the characters to match the flavor of the week minority, and hack writers treat race-swaps as a short cut to writing minorities since they don’t have to think up interesting characters if they can just steal pre-established ones. That’s how you get Bryke having the brilliant idea to introduce Muslim Earth Kingdom to the comics in a virtue signal so hilariously inept the stoning jokes practically wrote themselves.

The third one also sounds off, since the existence of Korra -the first attempt at a “this ain’t for kids anymore” installment that was produced by solo Bryke. Plus Netflix was pretty clear that they wanted a GoT expy, so I don’t get why that would come as a surprise. You’re telling me all that Korra torture porn was all for the plot? And it’s not like more explicit violence is a huge leap in logic considering it takes place in middle of a god damn war zone. And Bryke loved their unnecessary romance in Korra and even got pissy on Tumblr when people wanted less romance in it.

What, were the Zutara-tards right about that stupid conspiracy that Netflix wanted to do an Aang-Katara-Zuko love triangle for real? Because I swear if it turns out Bryke stormed out on Netflix because they’re still butthurt that their OTP wasn’t as popular with the fans, that will be the funniest fucking thing to come out of this mess.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

What, were the Zutara-tards right about that stupid conspiracy that Netflix wanted to do an Aang-Katara-Zuko love triangle for real? Because I swear if it turns out Bryke stormed out on Netflix because they’re still butthurt that their OTP wasn’t as popular with the fans, that will be the funniest fucking thing to come out of this mess.

I choose to believe Netflix is insisting on making Zutara canon in this version because that's what's funniest to me.

 

[Muttnik]

Take your pick on which main characters are now "suddenly gay".

My bets are on Azula, Toph, Ty Lee, and Aang himself.

 

[Archeops]

Take your pick on which main characters are now "suddenly gay".

My bets are on Azula, Toph, Ty Lee, and Aang himself.

Azula and Ty Lee will most likely be made to be such, those two are pretty paired up pretty often in the shipping scene despite it being abusive as fuck. Toph and Aang less so since them being gay would contradict the sacred SJW cow known as TLOK.

 

[Muttnik]

Azula and Ty Lee will most likely be made to be such, those two are pretty paired up pretty often in the shipping scene despite it being abusive as fuck.

I hate seeing that shit in the fanbase. Not only because of the abuse but they're also both like 14 years old, express no romantic interest in each other, and both have displayed interest in men (though in a power-dominance way for Azula). It'd actually find it pretty luzly if Netflix made the abusive psychopath that gets completely emotionally crippled and humiliated their token gay character.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I really can’t decide if the show will be more or less woke now that the original showrunners quit the project.

 

[Racist Trash]

What is the obsession with making Avatar live action anyway? You have to get good child actors (That are also diverse), you have to get good fighting choreography, special effects out the ass, animals are going to have to be CGI'd in and it's in a fantastical world. It's perfect for animation so why shamalamadingdongs film and now this series?

 

[One Man Bland]

What is the obsession with making Avatar live action anyway? You have to get good child actors (That are also diverse), you have to get good fighting choreography, special effects out the ass, animals are going to have to be CGI'd in and it's in a fantastical world. It's perfect for animation so why shamalamadingdongs film and now this series?

Because despite all the praise the series gets, animation as a medium is still considered niche at best so there’s a significant portion of the population who refuse to watch it on principle. Just look at how the almost all of the awards and accolades the series received when it was airing are either small fry ones no one’s heard of or specific to animation/children’s media - outside of those circles hardly anyone in Hollywood paid it any mind.

I suspect Viacom/Nickelodeon believe that the show has potential to reach a massive audience, so trying to make it live action is their attempt to bring in all those people. It’s still idiotic for you mentioned, and it’s not like the people who refuse to watch animation will ever give the original a fair shake, but bringing in more money and fans by pulling the series out of the animation ghetto and into a more “respectable” format like live action seems to be the game plan.

 

[Lucille Bluth]

Oh god it’s getting more insane now, Twitter has managed to get #CancelNetflixATLALiveAction trending on Twitter right now.

I think part of the reason why Netflix is going for the ”darker and more mature” tone is Because they want their own answer to HBO’s Game of Thrones.

But if the past has taught us anything it’s that basing it off of an animated show aimed at children is NOT the way to do it.

Honestly, they should scrap this shitty live action remake, not because of politically correct casting and or a "darker/mature" tone, but because the live action show will never live up to the hype/veneration the original cartoon had. I also fully expect special effects being around this level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpgbZcHk_A

 

[K. V. Bones]

I'm not rewatching ALL of avatar again, that was a fucking chore as good as the show was. Fuck Remakes.

 

[Lucille Bluth]

What is the obsession with making Avatar live action anyway? You have to get good child actors (That are also diverse), you have to get good fighting choreography, special effects out the ass, animals are going to have to be CGI'd in and it's in a fantastical world. It's perfect for animation so why shamalamadingdongs film and now this series?

This seems like a complete waste of time. All the money poured into this and you can bet many will despise this.

Finding actors who can act and will please the woke crowd, while getting good fight scenes, top notch special effects and trying to be faithful to the original while still being its own thing? Netflix sure as hell isn't going to achieve that.

Because despite all the praise the series gets, animation as a medium is still considered niche at best so there’s a significant portion of the population who refuse to watch it on principle. Just look at how the almost all of the awards and accolades the series received when it was airing are either small fry ones no one’s heard of or specific to animation/children’s media - outside of those circles hardly anyone in Hollywood paid it any mind.

I suspect Viacom/Nickelodeon believe that the show has potential to reach a massive audience, so trying to make it live action is their attempt to bring in all those people. It’s still idiotic for you mentioned, and it’s not like the people who refuse to watch animation will ever give the original a fair shake, but bringing in more money and fans by pulling the series out of the animation ghetto and into a more “respectable” format like live action seems to be the game plan.

Animation allowed this show's concept to thrive because it wasn't bound by the limits live action has. I'm sure a lot of the fantastical elements of the series will look ugly as sin in "real life". Unfortunate to see that people really do not take this "seriously" on the basis of being a cartoon.

I don't see how this show will make people change their minds, seeing as how I doubt the acting, production value, CGI, etc will be anything noteworthy/amazing.

 

[Xerxes IX]

What is the obsession with making Avatar live action anyway? You have to get good child actors (That are also diverse), you have to get good fighting choreography, special effects out the ass, animals are going to have to be CGI'd in and it's in a fantastical world. It's perfect for animation so why shamalamadingdongs film and now this series?

When you put it this way it sounds like they're holding on to hope that they can make live action Avatar the next Harry Potter, which is stupid for a variety of reasons.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

Netflix wanting it to be dark and gritty just reminds me of DC wanting all their superhero stuff to be similar and how well that turned out. I still remember that trailer for Titans having Robin going "FUCK BATMAN" and trying really hard to show how dark and gritty the show was going to be. It also stinks of Netflix not having watched the series since it did get pretty dark when you stopped to think about the implication of certain events or backstory.

 

[albert chan]

I haven’t seen ATLA in over more than a decade, but if Netflix really wanted a more “darker, mature tone with more sex, romance and blood”, wouldn’t most of Avatar’s fanbase just go on to rule34 and search up fan art of the show?

It’s the same thing with Korra, since I know most people didn’t like this show because of the plot.

 

[Racist Trash]

Netflix wanting it to be dark and gritty just reminds me of DC wanting all their superhero stuff to be similar and how well that turned out. I still remember that trailer for Titans having Robin going "FUCK BATMAN" and trying really hard to show how dark and gritty the show was going to be. It also stinks of Netflix not having watched the series since it did get pretty dark when you stopped to think about the implication of certain events or backstory.

The only good thing to come out of Titans was Doom Patrol.

 

[FaramirG]

I haven’t seen ATLA in over more than a decade, but if Netflix really wanted a more “darker, mature tone with more sex, romance and blood”, wouldn’t most of Avatar’s fanbase just go on to rule34 and search up fan art of the show?

It’s the same thing with Korra, since I know most people didn’t like this show because of the plot.

I wonder how much of that "darker, mature tone" stuff was genuine. Netflix wanted a "darker, mature tone" for the Witcher (already a brutal fantasy series not afraid to bring up gangrapes, genocide, starvation, lynch mobs, etc.), and then they watered it down to High School Musical. Bryke said that Legend of Korra would have a darker/mature tone compared to ATLA, and then they decided to introduce Quidditch and fartbending. It almost feels like saying something is darker and more mature is just a checkbox that you have to fill for marketing purposes, whether your show actually lives up to that promise or not.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

I wonder how much of that "darker, mature tone" stuff was genuine. Netflix wanted a "darker, mature tone" for the Witcher (already a brutal fantasy series not afraid to bring up gangrapes, genocide, starvation, lynch mobs, etc.), and then they watered it down to High School Musical. Bryke said that Legend of Korra would have a darker/mature tone compared to ATLA, and then they decided to introduce Quidditch and fartbending. It almost feels like saying something is darker and more mature is just a checkbox that you have to fill for marketing purposes, whether your show actually lives up to that promise or not.

Serious question: how many of these creatives have the normal-people perspective on "darkness" and "maturity?" We've documented pretty extensively on this site how the entertainment industry is dominated by nepotism and other forms of inside dealing (Chuck Wendig, step right up) to the point where Mags Visaggio type creatures are thrown a new project every six weeks so they can whine about the horrors of being misgendered.