Is Avatar Able to Be a Trendy Blockbuster Franchise?

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon’s action-fantasy anime that grew to become one of many community’s largest reveals again within the day. And what higher technique to have fun a momentous event than to lastly reveal a brand new present—Seven Havens, a 2D collection with a two-season greenlight and involvement from franchise co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Just like the earlier reveals, Havens will heart on one other younger Avatar coming into their very own, on this case a younger Earthbender who finds herself inheriting a stained mantle after a cataclysm involving her predecessor Korra has made folks cautious of anybody with the title.

We’ve recognized for a number of years now that Paramount would very very similar to to maintain Avatar going as a multimedia franchise. Usually, the franchise by no means actually went away, even because the hole between collection was sizable: together with Netflix’s separate (however ongoing) live-action remake, numerous comics and graphic novels have coated what occurred subsequent for Aang, Korra, and their buddies; video video games of questionable high quality have come out on a semi-consistent foundation (with a more substantial one on the horizon); and there’ve been quite a few YA books starring distinguished Avatars of the previous like Kyoshi and Yangchen.

However Seven Havens carries a special weight behind it as one of many franchise’s first tasks to come back from Avatar Studios. When this and the Aang-focused animated film—the first of three films to come back—launch, we’ll see if Avatar‘sgot what it takes to maintain up with the turbulent, franchise-heavy instances of our present popular culture period.

When the unique Final Airbender collection premiered February 21, 2005, there wasn’t actually something prefer it on western TV, to say nothing of Nick’s primarily comedy-focused lineup again then. For a lot of its then-young viewers, its anime artwork model and concentrate on motion and storytelling hooked them in and by no means actually left. And like different followers earlier than them, youngsters of the ’00s who made Avatar a key a part of their identities discovered themselves protecting of the franchise from anybody who didn’t appear to “get it,” therefore the longstanding bitterness over the live-action movie and the reflexive disdain when extra details about the Netflix adaptation started pouring out. That urge to guard goes past live-action ventures; longtime followers will keep in mind how a lot of a beating Legend of Korra‘s first two seasons (particularly the second) took, a few of which is owed to its begin as a two-season miniseries that grew to become one thing greater. Its remaining two seasons are a lot improved and construct on earlier occasions in attention-grabbing (and on the time, very unexpected) methods, however the first half can generally be a extra irritating watch than it ought to, as a result of DiMartino and Konietzko didn’t have the identical quantity of runway to work with as the unique present.

Instances have modified considerably since Korra’s show wrapped again in 2014. Franchises have grow to be an excellent greater foreign money in Hollywood, however studios haven’t actually performed the perfect job getting out of their very own manner and letting stated franchises do what they do finest. Motion pictures have expanded over to TV with combined outcomes, and never each franchise present is made equally—some aren’t being made like actual TV shows, and others weren’t actually given the time to correctly discover themselves. Korra had its issues, however at the very least it bought the chance to develop correctly; with how straightforward it’s for tasks to get overwhelmed by unfavourable reactions, each real and manufactured in bad faith, it may not have lasted lengthy these days. The franchise has to take care of all of that, plus the potential for having to churn out project after project ought to Havens or the film do effectively, or being successfully cast aside if both slip up even as soon as. If there’s one factor we’ve realized up to now decade, it’s that nobody is untouchable, and it doesn’t take a lot for one thing once-liked to lose steam and really feel washed.

The unique Avatar bought fortunate in that it was the primary and solely a part of itself again in 2005, and that it bought to reside in its personal context. After its finish, Paramount continued the franchise in a reactive manner—both to fan demand and streamer numbers, or not wanting the collection’ final phrase to be a bitter one that would alienate newcomers or maintain veterans from performing a rewatch. If DiMartino and Konietzko have extra tales they wish to inform on this universe, then clearly they need to get the house to take action with employees that’s equally enthusiastic and loving of the fabric. But when the collection is simply coming again so Paramount can flex what it’s got and tout one other all-ages franchise to face alongside SpongeBob and different manufacturers of childhood’s previous? That’ll do extra injury to Avatar’s legacy than any live-action challenge ever may.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing that you must learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.