Avatar: The Last Airbender is a coming-of-age story that follows Aang, a 12-year-old boy who is the key to saving the world. Along the way, Aang meets his friends Katara, Sokka, and others as they liberate the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdoms from the reign of the Fire Nation. The hit Nickelodeon series has already been given the live-action treatment once before, but that won’t stop Netflix from giving it another go.

The Netflix adaptation has been in development since 2018, and now, five years later, things are ramping up. We finally have more information on the upcoming project and what we can expect from the series. Here is everything we know about Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on February 20, 2024.

What is 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' About?

In the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, people are born into one of four nations: the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdoms, Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Depending on which nation you’re a part of, you might have the ability to be a "bender" — someone who can literally bend your nation’s element to your will. Only the Avatar can master all four elements because he serves as the bridge between the humans and the spirit world.

After the Fire Nation goes to war with the rest of the world, Aang, the current Avatar, must journey across the globe in an effort to master all four elements before it’s too late. Aang must make new allies like Sokka and Katara, while also evading enemies like Prince Zuko.

Netflix isn’t attempting to fix what wasn’t broken. The main plot of the series will follow Aang’s journey to becoming a fully realized Avatar while also giving them more room to develop the supporting cast and subplots that might have been brushed off in the original, using the extra runtime to its advantage. The animated series is a standard half-hour program and while it’s beloved by many, it could have benefited from longer episodes — for example, Aang and Katara learn waterbending at a very rushed pace. Here, each episode will likely be around 40 minutes to an hour, giving the characters more time to be fleshed out.

Does 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Have a Release Date?

Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender will premiere on February 22, 2024. The series will debut almost 19 years after the original animated series first aired on Nickelodeon on February 21, 2005.

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Does 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Have a Trailer?

The first look at footage for Avatar: The Last Airbender was during Netflix Geeked Week '23, which saw a nearly two-minute teaser trailer debut. In this teaser, Monk Gyatso narrates as we're introduced to the world of Avatar. The trailer is visually stunning, as many of these animated characters are being brought to life in a way that honors the original series.

The full trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender was released on January 23, 2024. The trailer showcased the world of Avatar, from the Water Tribes to the Omashu. The series looks to tell a condensed version of the animated show's first season.

Netflix released a behind-the-scenes video on February 8, 2024. We get to see how they brought this magical world to life.

On February 20, 2024, Netflix released the final trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Aang must master the Avatar State if he's going to save the world. Can you master his great power before it's too late?

Are the Original Creators Involved?

When the series was first announced in 2018, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators behind Avatar: The Last Airbender were the producers and showrunners of the Netflix adaptation. The two had next to no involvement with the 2010 movie adaptation, so fans were excited to finally have a proper live-action Avatar series with the original creators at the helm.

During the announcement, Melissa Cobb, vice president of Kids Entertainment at Netflix said: “We are committed to honoring Bryan and Mike’s vision for this retelling and are thrilled to support them on creating a live-action event series, bringing Aang's epic world of elemental magic to life for global audiences on Netflix.”

Things don’t always go as planned and in 2020, Mike and Bryan left the project, leaving the series in limbo until Netflix found a new showrunner.

When Michael Dante DiMartino spoke about their departure, he said:

“When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.”

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DiMartino went on to add:

“I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.”

In a separate statement, Bryan Konietzko said:

“Though I got to work with some great individuals, both on Netflix’s side and on our own small development team, the general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment.

To be clear, this was not a simple matter of us not getting our way. Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them. However, we ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series.”

Thankfully, fans will still see them involved with Avatar Studios, a newly formed branch of Nickelodeon set to bring us even more animated adventure in the Avatar universe.

The Creatives Behind 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'

Exactly one year to the day later, Netflix announced the new showrunner on the Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot. Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow) now serves as the showrunner, executive producer, and writer of the series. Joining Kim will be executive producers Dan Lin (The Lego Movie) and Lindsey Liberatore (Walker), Roseanne Liang (Creamerie), and Michael Goi (American Horror Story).

Kim released a letter to fans after the news broke of his involvement and said:

“Netflix’s format meant we had an opportunity to reimagine a story that had originally been told in self-contained half-hour episodes as an ongoing serialized narrative. That meant story points and emotional arcs we’d loved in the original could be given even more room to breathe and grow.”

Kim also wants to assure fans that they won’t be making pointless changes to the characters and will stay close to the source material. He went on to say: “I also knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to change things for the sake of change. I didn’t want to modernize the story or twist it to fit current trends. Aang is not going to be a gritty antihero. Katara is not going to get curtain bangs.”

The new team behind the project isn’t just going to copy and paste the animated series to live-action, but instead, expand on everything the original series built up. Kim added:

“Don’t get me wrong. We’ll be expanding and growing the world, and there will be surprises for existing fans and those new to the tale. But throughout this process, our byword has been “authenticity.” To the story. To the characters. To the cultural influences. Authenticity is what keeps us going, both in front of the camera and behind it, which is why we’ve assembled a team unlike any seen before—a group of talented and passionate artists who are working around the clock to bring this rich and incredibly beautiful world to life.”

Executive producer Michael Goi took to Instagram to give fans an update on the show's production. The series finished principle photography in June 2022.

The series was going to be scored by composer Jemery Zuckerman, the original artist behind the music in both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, but he stepped down after Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko left the project. Now, the series will feature the music of Takeshi Furukawa (Knight Edge Media was the first to break the news in February). Furukawa took to Twitter to express his excitement to be working on the series:

On August 21, 2023, Netflix revealed that Furukawa and the Synchron Stage Orchestra and Choir are hard at work on the show's music.

Who Stars in 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'?

Along with the new creative team, Netflix announced the main cast for Avatar: The Last Airbender. As of now, only a handful of characters are officially announced, with more on the way as we get closer to the start of production.

Gordon Cormier (The Stand) will lead the series as Avatar Aang. A fun-loving 12-year old boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The pain and guilt that Aang has is immeasurable, he’s the last airbender and the world’s only home for freedom. Cormier is going to have to channel both the child-like nature as well as the incredible spirit and heart of Aang.

Alongside Cormier will be Kiawentiio (Anne with An E) as Katara. Hailing from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara is a strong and compassionate waterbender, and has absolute faith in Team Avatar’s ability to bring about peace to the world.

Next is Ian Ousley (13 Reasons Why) who will be playing Sokka, Katara’s older brother. At 16 years old, Sokka serves as the protector of his tribe and will do whatever it takes to keep his sister safe. Even if he has to travel around the world to do it. Sokka is witty, clever, and the only non-bender in the main cast, giving you an endearing underdog quality.

We also have Dallas Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) rounding out our cast as Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. Zuko is burdened with the task of capturing the Avatar for his father, the Fire Lord. Serving as the main foil for our heroes, Liu will have to bring a level of nuance to his performance because Zuko is a villain that toes the line of hero, depending on the situation at hand.

In November 2021, we got a peek at Daniel Dae Kim's transformation into Lord Ozai, leader of the Fire Nation’s armies, who wants to kill the Avatar so that no one can stop him from taking over the world.

The Supporting Cast

The supporting cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender are Maria Zhang (Suki), Paul Sun-Hyung (Uncle Iroh), Elizabeth Yu (Azula), Momona Tamada (Ty Lee), Thalia Tran (Mei), Lim Kay Siu (Monk Gyatso), and Ken Leung (Commander Zhao), Amber Midthunder (Princess Yue), Tamlyn Tomita (Yukari), Yvonne Chapman (Avatar Kyoshi) Casey Camp-Horinek (Gran Gran), Arden Cho (June), A Martinez (Master Pakku), Nathaniel Arcand (Chied Arnook), Meegwun Fairbrother (Avatar Kuruk), Utkarsh Ambudkar (King Bumi), Danny Pudi (The Mechanist), Lucian-River Chauhan (Teo), Ruy Iskandar (Lt. Jee), Hiro Kanagawa (Fire Lord Sozin), C.S. Lee (Avatar Roku), François Chau (The Great Sage), Ryan Mah (Lt. Dang), Randall Duk Kim (Wong Shi Tong), and George Takei (Koh, the Face Stealer).