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When the world needed Avatar most, it vanished. But now the fan favorite animated franchise is back – and has the potential to be bigger than ever before.
Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have teased the sheer scope of the newly formed Avatar Studios on the Braving the Elements podcast (H/T ComicBook.com).
Konietzko told the hosts that the pair currently have a "very ambitious, multi-tiered" plan that will explore the "rich, largely untapped history and future in the Avatar world."
The plans for the Avatar universe are so grand that DiMartino joked that there could be decades of stories ahead of us.
"We have all the ideas and ideally we're going to get to, over the years, explore all of them and get to make them, but it'll take some time. If we make all this stuff, you guys will just be podcasting for about the next 20 years or so," DiMartino said.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series The Legend of Korra were hugely popular ventures on Nickelodeon and launched a multi-million dollar empire, though each mainline series only scratched the surface of a world dense with lore and untold histories. Now, there is serious backing for the creators to achieve their vision.
But it’s been a long road to get to this point. The original series launched in 2005, while a live-action 2010 movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan stumbled critically. Netflix even hired both DiMartino and Konietzko to develop a live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, but the pair left the project in August 2020 and returned to Nickelodeon for the formation of Avatar Studios.
In March, ViacomCBS announced in a statement that streaming service Paramount+ would be home to "a wide-range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form."
Things, it seems, are looking promising – and the franchise could even escalate into an MCU-style universe filled with spinoffs, shorts, and completely new series that should set the world on fire once more. There’s never been a better time to be an Avatar fan.
Need something to watch this month? Here’s what’s new on Netflix and new on Disney Plus this July.
