Netflix has very big shoes to fill with their ambition to turn the Avatar: The Last Airbender into a live-action show, but if its full-length trailer is any indication, fans seem to be in for a treat. The recent release of first-look images and a teaser premiere last year have now culminated into two and a half minutes of new footage, featuring some cool bending, Fire Nation warfare (of course), several familiar faces, and two beloved critters.
The clip mainly focuses on setting Aang, played by Gordon Cormier, up as the titular Avatar, who needs to master all four elements (air, water, earth, and fire) to save the world. It also offers a deeper glimpse into both the fantasy world itself and the show’s primary characters, including the air bison Appa and winged lemur Momo — both in CGI form, but looking good.
More prominently, it appears to have preserved the tone of the original animated series, which paints a very promising picture. Shirtless Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) makes an appearance, with Bumi, the Earth Kingdom ruler of Omashu (Utkarsh Ambudkar), bounty hunter June (Arden Cho), and Jet (Sebastien Amoruso) coming in as notable new glimpses. Oh, let’s not forget Aang entering the Avatar state, too.
Other cast members include Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Zuko, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as General Iroh, Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, Casey Camp-Horinek as Gran Gran, and Maria Zhang as Suki.
The official logline reads, “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.”
Season 1 will adapt the events of its progenitor, which ran on Nickelodeon for three seasons in 2005. The show is slated to premiere on 22 February with all eight episodes. Series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko aren’t involved in the adaptation, but are continuing the adventures of Aang and gang (or the Gaang) with an animated feature, in addition to more projects set in the Avatar universe.
Albert Kim, who serves as showrunner, previously teased some of the other changes coming to the forthcoming show. Speaking to EW, he said, “That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series…. We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama. So I’m very curious to see what’ll happen in terms of reaction to that.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender hits Netflix on 22 February.
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.
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