Avatar: The Last Airbender’s showrunner Albert Kim recently opened up about the series and its mature tone. He explains when they were developing the show, they wanted to make sure that it not only appealed to fans of the original Nickelodeon series but also to… Game of Thrones fans.
Kim described the live-action series as “a remix, not a cover”, and that the creative team knew going in that it “couldn’t just be for kids.”
He went on to explain during an interview with IGN: “Seasons 2 and 3 are a lot more mature in theme than, say, season 1 was. So for us, it was about striking that right balance, of making sure you were true to the DNA of the original. But at the same time, we had to make it a serialized Netflix drama.”
He added: “It had to also appeal to the people who are big fans of Game of Thrones so, it had to feel grounded and mature and adult in that way too. That’s the tightrope that we have to walk.”
Director Jabbar Raisani also talked about the tone of the show, saying: “When it comes down to hitting the tone, I mean, we have the script, and then we’re on set, and it’s like, ‘Let’s do this version.’ And then like, ‘Okay, let’s do sillier. Let’s go even sillier. Okay, now let’s pull it back.’ So we just made sure we had options that we could really choose from a range in post [production] versus like, ‘Oh no, we now have this one. That’s way too silly, and that’s our only choice, so what do we do?’ So just protecting yourself to make sure you can shape the tone.”
I get what they are trying to do, but they really don’t need to emulate Game of Thrones for Avatar: The Last Airbender. All they need to do is tell a strong story like the original animated series did! When they start talking about how they wanted to Game of Thrones-ify it, it makes me worry, because they shouldn’t be thinking about Game of Thrones when they are making an Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
This makes me wonder if this is the reason why the original creators quit the live-action series.
The synopsis for the series reads: “Set in an Asiatic, war-torn world where certain people can ‘bend’ one of the four classical elements: water, earth, fire, or air. Aang is the ‘Avatar,’ the only one capable of bending all the elements, and is destined to bring peace to the world from the Fire Nation. With his new companions Katara (Kiawentiio Tarbell ) and Sokka (Ian Ousley), Aang sets out to master the elements while being pursued by the exiled Fire Nation prince Zuko (Daniel Dae Kim), who seeks to regain his honor by capturing the Avatar.”
I included all of the casting and character details below. The series is set to premiere on February 22, 2024.
