The Gaang is back, and they are all grown up. Five years after its initial announcement, Paramount+ has dropped the first trailer for the highly anticipated sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which follows Team Avatar as adults and is set to arrive a few months earlier than planned.
Instead of October, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender will now debut globally on 25 July, but not in theatres. A streaming-only launch has been set for the animated feature — a decision that undoubtedly ruffled feathers, considering it was initially slated for a theatrical release and that the streamer’s limited availability means select territories, including most of Asia, won’t have access. It didn’t help that the entire movie was leaked online earlier in April, likely contributing to the change in premiere date, and resulting in a 26-year-old Singaporean being arrested for the incident.
For longtime fans, the clip teases a welcome return to the fantasy world. Alongside jokes and callbacks to the original series, it also introduces a new airbender named Tagah, voiced by Dave Bautista, who joins forces with a grown-up Aang (Eric Nam), Katara (Jessica Matten), Sokka (Román Zaragoza), Toph (Dionne Quan), and Zuko (Steven Yuen) to stop mysterious new enemies.
“Avatar Aang, the world’s last Airbender, learns 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,” reads the official logline.
Lauren Montgomery is directing Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender alongside Steve Ahn and William Mata, while series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko join Latifa Ouao and Maryann Garger as producers. DiMartino and Konietzko also wrote the story with Tim Hedrick and Kenneth Lin, and award-winning composer Jeremy Zuckerman will return to score the film. Additional casting includes Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), Geraldine Viswanathan (Thunderbolts), Dee Bradley Baker (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Peta Sergeant, Freida Pinto (CW’s Supergirl), and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) in unspecified roles.
The project will mark the first work from Avatar Studios, the production company led by DiMartino and Konietzko that serves as a division of Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Running from 2005 to 2008, the original show follows Aang on his quest to master all four elements — water, earth, fire, and air — to fulfil his destiny as the Avatar and bring peace to the world by defeating the Fire Lord, the ruling supreme of the Fire Nation. Since its finale, the series continued for four seasons with The Legend of Korra, receiving a string of comic books, prequel novels, and two live-action adaptations: M. Night Shyamalan’s widely panned film and a two-season run on Netflix. A third and final season has been greenlit.
Next in the pipeline is Avatar: Seven Havens, which is set after the events of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. The animated series is premiering in 2027 with a new protagonist in tow: one of two long-lost Earthbending twins, who discover that she is the new Avatar.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
