Albert Kim, who replaced creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is handing over the series to colleagues Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani.
Sources say Kim’s intention was to lay the foundation for season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender after stepping in for the beloved franchise’s creators. Given the long turnaround time in crafting the series — Netflix ordered it in 2018, the creators left in late 2020 and the show didn’t debut until February 2024 — sources say Kim was ready to move on to new opportunities.
Co-executive producer Christine Boylan and exec producer/director Jabbar Raisani — both of whom were hired by Kim — will take over as the drama’s third showrunners for the previously announced second and third seasons.
The way I look at it is not as an adaption of the og series. In my eyes it’s simply an alternative history re-telling, similar to Marvel’s “What if”. Which makes it way more intriguing than looking at it as the same story.
But are an alternative history re-telling to succeed you either have improve on the story on the way the story is told. And I think the new show fell short in both categories.
What I was hopeing for (and It was always just hope, I never seriously expected it) was a very close adaptation of the orginal cartoon, but expand on the aspects that had to be tuned down for a kids show.
For example in the original cartoon you never really get the feeling there is actually a brutal war going on until the end of Season 3 and even then everything is quite tame. Portraying the war in a more dark and mature light could have added more depths to the seriousness of the overall conflict.