One (live-action) Avatar ends, and another (animated) Avatar rises. Netflix’s live-action Avatar has just wound up its second season (with a third to come), but Paramount has had a handful of animated Avatar films in the works since at least 2021. The first of those movies, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, was set for a fall release, but earlier this year, the entire film leaked online. That may or may not have anything to do with the fact that the movie is now arriving in just a few weeks, on July 25th—and there’s a shiny new trailer to go along with that release date.
The trailer finds Aang (Eric Nam) a bit disheartened by the fact that “all of the nations live together in peace and harmony”—except his Air Nation. But the discovery of another frozen airbender (Dave Bautista’s Tagah) may change everything. Naturally, there are also some power-hungry enemies creeping about. The synopsis says little more:
The new film, based on the animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, sees Avatar Aang, the world’s last Airbender, learn of an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction. With the help of his friends, he embarks on a global quest to find it before it falls into the wrong hands and threatens to upend the peace they sacrificed everything to achieve.
This synopsis does not mention quite how thirsty—or jacked—everyone is. Priorities!
This film is set after the original animated series, but more Avatar tales are coming: Last year, a new sequel series from creators DiMartino and Konietzko, Avatar: Seven Havens, was announced. It is set farther into the Avatar timeline, after the previous sequel series, The Legend of Korra.
Avatar Aang also stars Jessica Matten as Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, Steven Yeun as Zuko, and Dionne Quan as Toph. Freida Pinto, Ke Huy Quan, Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ronny Chieng, and Ken Jeong also provide voices, and Dee Bradley Baker returns to voice Appa and Momo.
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is directed by Lauren Montgomery and co-directed by Steve Ahn and William Mata. The screenplay is by Tim Hedrick and Christopher Yost; the story is by Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Tim Hedrick, and Kenneth Lin. The film premieres July 25th on Paramount Plus.
