Water
Earth
Fire
Air
Welcome back everyone it's charlie this is going to be my new avatar the last
airbender netflix series mike and brian the creators made a big
announcement this morning about the project so i'll explain
what it means what's going to be happening with the show and what other
avatar stuff they're working on right now
if you're new to my channel be sure to subscribe to get all the videos i will
continue to do avatar the last airbender videos for the animated series for the
live action series that they're doing right now
but i'll number these as we go along just to stay organized so starting with
the big stuff first mike and brian who have been working on
the new live action avatar the last airbender series for netflix
since 2018 just announced just dropped a bomb
that they have left the project as of june this past year
but it's not all bad because they said they both had plans to continue working
on new avatar stuff in the avatar universe i'll explain what
that means in a second too after i explain their big statements
so for those of you hoping for a new animated avatar the last airbender
series with a different avatar things are still looking good down the
road they both posted lengthy statements about why they chose to leave the new
netflix live-action project and what happened to lead up to that decision
so for those of you who are wondering why they've continued to be so quiet
while we haven't gotten any updates about the series the past few years
about casting or release date or episodes or teasers
this kind of explains why so we'll just read their statements then
i'll explain what it all means for the new series because you kind of have to
read between the lines to understand what they're really trying to say
the things that they really fought with netflix about because they can't get too
public with it just because of legal reasons so brian starts by saying
michael dimartino and i recently chose to leave netflix's live-action
adaptation of avatar the last airbender the series he and i created together in
2002 we will have no involvement in the
project moving forward this is probably the most difficult
decision i've ever had to make but there is no doubt in my mind it was absolutely
the right choice when netflix brought me on board to run
this series alongside mike two years ago they made a very public promise to
support our vision unfortunately there was not a follow
through on that promise though i got to work with some great
individuals both on netflix's side in our own
small side of development team the general handling of the project
created what i felt was a negative and unsupportive
environment to be clear this was not a simple matter of us not getting our way
mike and i are collaborative people we did not need all the ideas to come from
us as long as we felt like those ideas were
in line with the spirit and integrity of avatar
we would have happily embraced them however we ultimately came to the belief
that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the
series though i am profoundly disappointed by
how things turned out there are wonderfully talented people who are
still working on the series some of whom mike and i personally hired
and got to know during our time on the project
we worked very hard together towards a shared dream of how special this
adaptation could be and i want to see them employed
and i hope that they get the chance to do their best work on the series
perhaps the team that remains might still be able to make something fans of
the original and the entirely new audience can enjoy
i will continue to be deeply involved in the avatar universe telling the stories
my partner and i want to tell in a way that we want to
tell them i will put my time energy and talents towards the projects
that give me the most fulfillment in where i am afforded trust and respect
life is too short to do otherwise signed brian konietzko so what does that
all mean reading between the lines brian's statement lists
slightly different reasons for leaving the project than mike's does
brian is making it sound like they felt like they weren't in charge of the
project anymore and netflix didn't want to do things the way that they wanted to
do them and had some disagreements about
creative direction and how they actually produced the series
in the way he talks about it just makes it sound like netflix wasn't honoring
their creative choices for the series that doesn't explain whether or not
netflix disagreed with the cast that mike and brian wanted or
maybe they wanted a more americanized version because when they first
announced that they were doing a new live action avatar the last airbender
series brian was super clear that he wanted to
do a retelling of the original animated series but make it way
more authentic to the original cultures that it was based on
mostly asian i've always thought of the water tribe though as being based on
inuit cultures but the fire nation the earth kingdom
the air nomads are all based on different types of asian cultures
it's totally possible that netflix just wanted avatar but making it stranger
things like the way the kids 11 also bald hero with special powers blew up in
popularity and now that that show's getting ready to end
netflix wants a new version of that with another franchise
and even if you've only watched a couple episodes of the original animated avatar
the last airbender even though it follows around a group of
children or kids for the most part teenagers around the world
it in no way gives off any kind of stranger things vibe
at all also recently there was a report that netflix was aggressively looking to
create its own huge franchise like star wars or the marvel
cinematic universe something that could go on for forever
and yes the avatar series mythology allows you to do that
through different avatars a new one being born when the previous one dies
but it sounds like mike and brian probably didn't want to give this new
live-action avatar the last airbender series the marvel treatment and just use
it to set up a billion other spin-offs in sequel or prequel series
the other major disagreements that most people have when they leave projects
like this in real high profile ways is over budgets being too small and
production schedules being too quick they announced the project back in 2018
when they did that netflix created a landing page
on the platform that listed a 2020 release date
so it sounds like they wanted to get the series out super quickly
obviously we know things didn't go down that way also right now in 2020 being
a really terrible year mike and brian imply that because of what's going on
with the virus it created some insurmountable
practical challenges for the production and they just couldn't come to terms
with netflix on it also if you've seen any of netflix's
previous live-action anime adaptations they have not been pretty and i know we
could argue all day over whether or not avatar the last airbender is anime or
not technically it's not anime is animation
that's produced out of japan avatar was made in the united states so
it would be more correct to say that it's western animation that's done in
the style of anime and one of the hallmarks of some of the
previous netflix live-action anime adaptations have been
very quick and dirty productions but most of that content is stuff that they
just buy out of japan so japan produces a lot of
really janky looking live-action adaptations of
anime most of the time netflix will just
license that one of the first really authentic netflix original anime
live-action adaptations is actually going to be the one
piece series i've got a lot of questions about that i haven't seen any concept
art i don't know if it's going to be terrible or if it'll be good who knows
and even though there are a lot of people now that are making m night
shyamalan last airbender live action movie jokes
things have not gotten that bad yet the difference between what happened
then with that movie and what's happening now with the live-action
series is that when they were making the
live-action movie mike and brian said that they barely got
any input at all during the making of that
in netflix despite evidence that the contrary aren't complete idiots they
know how much everyone hates the live-action last airbender movie
and most of them probably understand the reasons why everyone hates it so i don't
think that even though mike and brian won't be
directing episodes or overseeing creative anymore
that the new series will just turn into another m night level disaster
but right now what's happening is the series has not been cancelled at all
they're still going to make it but because of the leadership changes
behind the scenes my assumption is they won't try to start casting and
filming it till early next year meaning the earliest they'd be able to
release it would be the end of 2021 next year or spring 2022
it just depends on how fast they can get into production so hopefully netflix
doesn't cut too many corners or cheap out on it but a lot of you asked now
mike and brian said that they're going to continue working on new avatar
universe material there are a lot of new comic books and new books that
they've been publishing in the avatar universe
but the odds of them doing a new animated series with another avatar just
probably shot up a thousand percent nickelodeon still owns the property the
classic animated series was the most popular show
in the world on netflix for a long time this year so demand
for new avatar material is through the roof if they're moving through the
avatar cycle with their different series the next avatar that they do whether it
be said in the past or set in the future with a new avatar
would be an earthbender avatar now a lot of you know that they actually just
published a big avatar kyoshi book she is one of the most hardcore avatars
in the history of the universe she's like the stabby avatar that's not
afraid to kill people in fact in the new kiyoshi book there's
actually a story about how she defeated a warlord
by bending the water in his body freezing it to ice
stopping his heart that is straight up hardcore that is not something that you
would catch aang or even korra doing and if you haven't read that book it's
actually pretty solid it's available right now there are two parts i believe
there's going to be another third part to that that they'll make
pretty soon too and if you're looking for more avatar inspired animation
the dragon prince series on netflix is actually made by a lot of og
avatar people the creator of the series is actually aaron e haas who is the
original head writer on avatar the last airbender
i will continue to make more avatar the last airbender videos so leave all your
video requests in the comments below but click here to
learn about what the supposed story of avatar the last airbender season 4
would have been and click here for my brand new stranger things
season 4 trailer video thank you so much for watching everyone stay safe
I'll see you guys tonight!