Last year, Nickelodeon announced their plans to continue the beloved universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender. With the titular Avatar Studios at the helm, we learned last month that the studio’s first outing would be not one, but three feature films set in the universe of Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s martial arts fantasy anime. Since then, there’ve been rumours and hopes about who will lead those films, and we now know at least one of them will reunite us with the heroic kids who started it all.
During the “Avatar: Braving the Elements” panel, Janet Varney, who voiced Korra in the sequel series of the same name, revealed that the first Avatar film would bring back Avatar Aang and his iteration of Team Avatar — consisting of siblings Katara and Sokka, earthbender Toph Beifong, Prince Zuko, and Kyoshi warrior Suki — from the mothership series, but as young adults. The The film will be produced by DiMartino and Konietzko, along with Korra producer Eric Coleman, and directed by Avatar alum Lauren Montgomery.
Just got some HUGE NEWS from @janetvarney at our #NickSDCC Avatar: Braving the Elements – LIVE! panel, the first feature-length movie from Avatar Studios will be focusing on Avatar Aang and his friends! 💨💦🍃🔥 pic.twitter.com/dsbK1XMCe5
— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) July 22, 2022
Notably, in the video above, Varney is reading a copy of the young adult novel, Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee. A film focused on her, along with one starring fellow fan favourite Avatar Korra, were rumoured to be rounding out the Avatar film trilogy earlier this year. Nickelodeon could just be having some fun, but it could also serve as a soft admission of the next two films in the pipeline.
At this time, no plot details on the first Avatar film were given, and it’s not even clear who from the original cast will return. Zuko and Sokka’s respective voice actors, Dante Basco and Jack De Sena, were a part of the panel, but said nothing about their involvement. Details about the film and its two follow ups will come in the near future. For now, we’ve got this news and the recently released novel for Avatar Yangchen to tide us over until the next big update about this revival.
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