Who could forget Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Sixteen years ago the animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender was aired on television by the children’s network, Nickelodeon. The series, which followed the story of a young monk named Aang who sets out to master the four elements and restore balance to his world was a complete hit.
People around world fell in the love with the animated series. Its aesthetics, unique and moving plot and unforgettable characters (Zuko everybody!) had viewers tuning into the show right up until it’s finale in 2008.
However the hype surrounding Avatar did not end when the series did.
The Avatar series blossomed into a franchise with the creation of several graphic novels and the spin-off series, Avatar: Legend of Korra.
And even now in 2021, ATLA inspired fan art can be viewed on numerous social media pages and fans around the world are still talking about the series, especially with the current production of the Netflix live-action remake.
But what’s perhaps even more exciting for fans of Avatar is news of Nickelodeon’s brand new Avatar Studios.
Nickelodeon’s New Avatar Studios!
In a recent Instagram post co-creator of Avatar, Bryan Konietzko shared some thrilling news for fans of the award-winning animated series. He announced that he and DiMartino will be heading up a brand new Avatar Studios that will be operating under Nickelodeon.
The enthusiasm surrounding Avatar did not go unnoticed by the series creators, who are just as enamoured by the Avatarverse as the fans are and are excited to be heading back into the Avatarverse.
As co-chief creators of the new studio, Konietzko and DiMartino are looking forward to developing and exploring different stories, characters and time periods from the worlds of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra, as well as bringing Avatar’s passionate community of fans brand new content to view.
Whilst the new studios will be pivotal in providing eager fans with new Avatar-based content, it may also prove to be a great creative opportunity for Konietzo and DiMartino.
Last year in 2021, in an unfortunate turn of events, Konietzko and DiMartino announced their departure from the Netflix production of Avatar: The Last Airbender. They attributed their decision to Netflix’s failure to follow through on their promise to stay true to the series’ vision and a working in a “negative and unsupportive environment”.
So heading the new Avatar Studios and working with Nickelodeon again, will likely allow ATLA’s creators to live out their vision for the world of Avatar with no fear of compromise. And seeing as Konietzko stated that the environment at Nickelodeon has been “positive [and] proactive” from the start, that’s bound to be the case. So it looks like Avatar fans nationwide are in for a treat!
Avatar-lovers first emersion into the expanding Avatar universe will be an animated feature which is set to begin production this 2021. Once complete, the film as well as Avatar Studios’ future animated and movie productions, will be made available to view on Nickelodeon’s linear and digital platforms, Paramount + and other third party platforms.