The most anticipated Netflix series of the start of 2024 is released this week on Netflix, and promises to create an event among the streaming platform’s subscribers.
Netflix has found the goose that lays the golden eggs by offering live action adaptations of manga and animated series loved by the public. After the success of One Pieceit’s a new challenge that the streaming platform is launching this week, and not the least, since it is one of the most popular (and brilliant) animated series of all time which is adapted with real actors and real sets.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was first adapted into a film before becoming the Netflix series that we are discovering this week. As in the three-season animated series, subscribers to the streaming platform will be immersed in a fictional world inspired by Chinese culture, governed by the four elements (air, fire, water and earth). If some initiates are capable of mastering one, only the Avatar can control them all and maintain the balance between the different tribes.
More particularly, Avatar: The Last Airbender follows the story of Aang, the last airbender still alive and above all the Avatar. While he was prisoner for a century in an iceberg, the Fire Nation took advantage of it to place the other tribes under its yoke. Aged 12, Aang is freed by Katara and Soka, two members of the Water Tribe. To stop the Fire Nation, Aang will have to learn to master the other three elements.
In the Netflix adaptation, we will discover actors who are mostly unknown to the public: Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio Tarbell (Katara), Dallas Liu (Zuko, seen before in Shang-Chi), Ian Ousley (Sokka, seen in Young Sheldon) or Momona Tamada (Ty Lee, previously in Babysitters) and Arden Cho (June, seen in Teen Wolf previously) are in the casting.
Released in 2005, the animated series Avatar was a real hit in the United States, attracting an average of 7.6 million viewers in total, before winning the trophy for best animated series at the Kid’s Choice Awards in 2008. The success was such that the series was entitled to to a suite, The Legend of Korrafeaturing a new Avatar.
If the animated series was great, its live action adaptation was widely criticized. Released in 2010, The last air Master had however been directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village) with, in the cast, the actors Dev Patel or Niccola Peltz. But it will be dismantled by critics, and will win no less than 5 Razzie Awards in 2011 (a trophy which “rewards” the worst in cinema).
Netflix’s bet to adapt this beloved series with real actors is therefore particularly risky, because fans of this universe are very demanding. However, it remains highly anticipated, thanks to the first encouraging trailers which are extremely faithful to the animated series. The 10 episodes ofAvatar: The Last Airbender can be discovered on the streaming platform from February 22, 2024.