The difference to the 2010 movie (which shall be mentioned no further) is that original AVATAR creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are on board the live-action project as showrunners, writers and executive producers. They're absolutely 100% in charge, and have already committed to no whitewashing of the cast and keeping most of the spirit of the show intact (the promo art shows that Appa, at least, is staying the same). Apparently they and Netflix have been planning this series for "a long time" and will start shooting in early 2019.
Cautiously, intriguing and they're certainly making the right noises. If I did have one concern, it's that AVATAR: TLA was so successful because of the combination of writers and other creatives. Of the other people involved, Dave Filoni is now heading up the STAR WARS animated shows at Lucasfilm, whilst head AVATAR writer Aaron Ehasz and director Giancarlo Volpe are making THE DRAGON PRINCE for Netflix (Season 1 of which dropped last week and is great), so not all of the creative team will be available.
Still, I'm willing to give this a shot. It will be Netflix's second live-action epic fantasy series, after THE WITCHER (which will air in late 2019).
Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have quit Netflix's AVATAR remake, after losing "creative control" of the project.
Apparently DiMartino and Konietzko were being overruled by Netflix on decisions to the point where they felt like they could no longer work on the project. They note that some of their co-writers and collaborators were keen on making a show very true to the spirit of the original series and others were not.
In particular, it seems casting may have been an issue: DiMartino and Konietzko were keen on casting according to the TV show's ethnic groups, but no casting had been announced despite filming being scheduled for February, pre-COVID. Hopefully Netflix weren't stupid enough to try to whitewash the cast again, but given some of their decisions with other projects, I wouldn't bet against that.
The status of the project now is unclear, but DiMartino and Konietzko seem to think it will go ahead.
This is taking forever - they started filming in November 2021 and wrapped in June 2022, after numerous delays - but we have a first look at the four main characters.
Unfortunately, it won't be out until early 2024. This is taking so long that original creators Michael Di Martino and Bryan Konietzko have had time to found a new animation studio and are already deep in production on an animated AVATAR movie for Nickelodeon and Paramount+. This new film will be set 10-15 years after the OG series and will catch up with the original characters having new adventures. They are also developing two other films and an ongoing TV show, which is rumoured to be focusing on the Avatar after Korra.
The show launches on 22 February, so not long to see if they've nailed it.
