Although the first season of one of Netflix’s most high-profile anime adaptations divided audiences when it first released, the show still scored a dual-season renewal — and it’s all the better for it. It’s still difficult for live-action adaptations of anime to find the right balance between the vibrancy of the source material and a more grounded storytelling format. Netflix’s One Piece has become the gold standard for live-action anime adaptations precisely because it leans into the colorful, fantastical world created by Eiichiro Oda, fully embracing what made audiences fall in love with it in the first place.
What once seemed impossible to produce was suddenly a major streaming hit. Still, even the example set by Netflix’s One Piece, both during production and after its release, couldn’t fundamentally shift how Hollywood approached its other live-action anime and cartoon adaptations. Some adaptations are still hindered by the studios’ need to create something darker and more action-oriented, at times losing what made the original animated story so engaging.
This includes Netflix’s adaptation of the much smaller yet no less epic world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, based on the Nickelodeon animated series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The original animation, which consists of three seasons that ran between 2005 and 2008, is one of the most successful and enduring animated shows of all time. While Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar Aang‘s story is miles better than the excruciating 2010 movie, it still hasn’t fully swayed The Last Airbender‘s original audience. With two more seasons on the way, though, that could all still change.
Why Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 Was So Divisive
Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation suffered from behind-the-scenes issues long before the show premiered on the streaming platform in 2024. The retelling was originally announced all the way back in 2018, with The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko brought on board to run the project. Two years later, they left. Following the split, both DiMartino and Konietzko shared that they felt Netflix’s backing didn’t live up to their expectations, with Konietzko writing, “[Netflix] made a very public promise to support our vision. Unfortunately, there was no follow-through on that promise.” The duo launched Avatar Studios in 2021.
It took another four years for the live-action series to premiere on the platform. While the first season stuck much closer to the original story than the critically panned movie did, it lacked the spark that turned Avatar: The Last Airbender into one of the most beloved cartoons of the 21st century. Rather than 20-minute episodes and 20 episodes per season, Netflix’s Avatar was condensed into streaming’s preferred hour-long episodes in an eight-episode season format, expanding certain storylines while ignoring others.
|
Rotten Tomatoes Critics’ Score |
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
|
|
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) |
100% |
98% |
|
The Last Airbender (2010) |
5% |
30% |
|
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) |
62% |
70% |
The Kyoshi Island episode was a big success, certainly. Yet Aang barely learned to waterbend in Netflix’s first season, seemingly abandoning the simple narrative structure outlined in the three-“book” animated show. Then there’s the fact that, despite Netflix’s Avatar being more action-oriented — the show opening with the massacre of the Air Nomads was a big, violent swing — the actual bending scenes often missed the kinetic, colorful energy of the source material.
These changes (understandably) rattled fans of the original show. Even so, Netflix’s adaptation proved to be a solid and largely enjoyable entry point for viewers completely new to the franchise, showcasing the strength and importance of The Last Airbender‘s worldbuilding and premise, its themes of war, colonization, spirituality, and redemption, and the undeniable power of friendship and found family. Audiences were certainly intrigued enough by Netflix’s live-action series, as the streamer renewed the show for two more seasons less than two weeks after its premiere.
A Three-Season Arc Will Give Avatar Fans Proper Closure
Much like 2005’s The Last Airbender, Netflix’s Avatar will consist of three seasons. Thankfully, this means that this version of Aang’s story will reach its epic conclusion, too, giving both animated and live-action fans the closure this saga undoubtedly deserves. Aang’s journey can’t be cut off after just one season. Every character he meets — including The Last Airbender season 2’s upcoming earthbender introduction — and every new bending skill he learns are crucial to his eventual face-off with the terrifying Fire Lord Ozai. Each installment is part of the larger whole.
Avatar‘s confirmed three-season structure also means that the show can build on what came before, developing its characters without fear that their arcs will be cut off prematurely. Katara’s training as a waterbender is nearly as important as Aang’s development as the Avatar; there are narrative parallels and character moments the show can incorporate because it already knows they’ll pay off. In this era of streaming, knowing when and how a series will end is an undeniable luxury, one that Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender will hopefully make the most of when it returns for seasons 2 and 3.
Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 premieres on June 25, 2026, only on Netflix.
- Release Date
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February 22, 2024
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Albert Kim
- Directors
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Jet Wilkinson
- Writers
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Joshua Hale Fialkov, Christine Boylan