Netflix’s ‘Avatar’: Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, the creators of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” spent two years producing a live-action rendition of the animation classic for Netflix before suddenly exiting the project owing to creative differences. Albert Kim, best known as a writer on “Pantheon” and an executive producer on “Sleepy Hollow,” was left as the showrunner of the live-action series without the approval of the franchise’s original founders. He recently told Entertainment Weekly that continuing with the project without them was “absolutely” intimidating.
“You’d have to be an idiot not to be a little intimidated,” Kim said. “My first thought after hearing ‘Hell yeah!’ was, ‘Holy sh*t! Is this something I truly want to do? Is it possible to improve on the original?’ You have to ask yourself those questions whenever you approach something that has already won millions of supporters.
When Konietzko and DiMartino left the live-action program, they explained their decision in an open letter, in which DiMartino stated that they “couldn’t control the creative direction of the series.”
“When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners,” DiMartino said in a statement. “In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix stated that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and supporting us in the series’ creation.” And we conveyed our excitement at the prospect of taking the helm. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned.”
“The hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make,” said DiMartino, who also mentioned that the live-action ‘Avatar’ on Netflix “has the potential to be good. “It’s possible that a lot of you wind up liking the show. But one thing I know for sure is that it will not be the version Bryan and I had in mind or expected to see on film.
Since then, Konietzko and DiMartino have taken the helm of Avatar Studios, where they are working on a number of brand-new animated “Avatar” projects. A full-length animated movie is set for release in 2025.
When creating Netflix’s live-action adaptation, Kim stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that “all of our writers are also fans of the original, so they drew upon their own personal experiences and the things that they love the best.
Kim noted that we don’t start the show like an animated series. That was a conscious decision to show that this is not an animated series. To make sense for a serialized drama, we had to dismantle storylines and remix them in new ways. So I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to that.