Much like the “One Piece” live-action show, the production budget is on screen in the new “Avatar: The Last Airbender” trailer. The series will feature several locations, big sets, and elaborate costumes to bring the world originally created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to life. Also like “One Piece,” sadly, some characters and shots don’t translate that well — Zuko’s scar is too small, and some shots look too dark.
The bigger question that remains to be answered is how the Netflix remake will tackle the episodic format of the original “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” After all, that first season was very much a kid-friendly, adventure-of-the-week cartoon with some fun world-building and tons of great silly gags. Sure, there were moments of absolute greatness early on, but the show had a good balance between plot and lore and also standalone episodic fun — the kind of balance we don’t get in the era of streaming but made for great network TV.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” premieres February 22, 2024 on Netflix.
