Netflix has confirmed its live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting two more seasons.
Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered on Netflix on 22 February this year and quickly topped the streaming charts. The series became the top English-language TV show on the streamer, with 41.1 million views, in its first 11 days. The series then ranked number one in 76 countries, and broke the top 10 in 92.
Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Fire Lord Ozai in the current series, delivered the news today to his young castmates Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara), Ian Ousley (Sokka), Dallas Liu (Zuko) and Elizabeth Yu (Azula) – as well as Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Iroh). But it seems he couldn’t resist playing a prank on them first by convincing them it had been cancelled instead. Watch the video below:
Read: Avatar: The Last Airbender – cast interviews
Albert Kim will remain showrunner and lead the creative team in adapting the final two seasons of the Nickolodeon animated series into live action. While plot details are under wraps, the first season of Netflix’s live action Avatar: The Last Airbender covered the storylines of Book One: Water, so it would make sense if the next two covered Book Two: Earth, and Book Three: Fire, respectively.
Kim also revealed to Entertainment Weekly that there will be a time jump between Seasons 1 and 2, mostly to have an explanation for the young actors who will soon be ageing very visibly. Actors Cormier and Kiawentiio first joined the production at the ages of 11 and 14, respectively, and are now three years older.
It is not yet known how many episodes will be in the newly-ordered seasons. In our review of Season 1, we noted that eight episodes was a pretty tight squeeze for all the events of the animated series:
‘If you’re completely new to Aang’s story, the choices made in the series to distinguish it from the original won’t really matter to you. But fans and newbies alike will probably share a similar reaction regarding the show’s pacing. In a nutshell, it is extremely fast, and hardly ever slows down during the collective ~8 hour runtime. This is a show on rails, attempting to make stops at every beloved bit from the original series while hurtling towards its final destination, announcing every five minutes that this is where we are headed (the Northern Water Tribe) and here are the reasons for that (Aang receives a prophetic warning).’ – Silvi Vann-Wall.
Read: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix review – temper expectations
Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix.
