We’re less than a month away from the release of Netflix’s live-action rendition of the beloved animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The lead-up to the show’s premiere has been one of cautious excitement, given that many fans still have a bad taste in their mouths from the M. Night Shyamalan iteration, and the news that the creators of the animated series left the Netflix project over creative differences.
The trailer today appears to at least assuage worries that the new series would veer away from the original one. Several scenes in this clip mirror moments from the animated show, giving some fans at least (it’s me, I’m the fan) a feeling of déjà vu when viewing. Appa and Momo also look pretty great, which is no small feat given the adaptation of magical animated characters to live-action productions doesn’t always go so well—just ask the creative team on the Sonic: The Hedgehog movies.
The casting here all looks fantastic as well, and the actors—including Gordon Cormier, who plays Aang—are also optimistic that fans, new and old, will enjoy the new show.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action I feel like is going to bring everything you know and love about the original series back to life,” Cormier said during a fan event in Brazil earlier this year. “And hopefully [it will] just bring a bunch of new fans who have never heard [of] the show before into this universe, and to me that’s pretty exciting. I’m a fan of the show personally, and I’m just as excited for this as you guys are.”
If you’re one of those potential new fans, here’s the official synopsis of the show:
Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope.
But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang, a young Air Nomad—and the last of his kind—reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka and Katara, siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai. But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.
All episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres on Netflix on February 22, 2024.
Check out the trailer below.
