Don’t Be Surprised if the Netflix Avatar Remake Gets Cancelled
The show's scope might be its ultimate downfall.
Since Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko left the Avatar the Last Airbender remake on Netflix the fandom has been theorizing just why they did. The reason the creators gave, which boiled down to creative differences, typically comes across as a bit vague and therefore unsatisfying to fans. But the theorizing thus far has been annoying to me.
One of the particular theories that irked me was the people trying to convince others that Netflix was trying to age up the characters so they could do more violent action and sex scenes. That is just so wrongheaded and clearly said just to rile people up that don’t know anything about production.
The more realistic theory I read was that Bryke (the name Avatar fans affectionately use to refer to the creators) was unsatisfied with their budget. I can definitely see that as a factor, especially since before the pandemic Netflix was hemorrhaging money. But that’s often an issue with most projects so I would doubt that is the only reason.
Just to clarify, I do know a bit about production. I have never worked for Netflix, and their company policies are pretty strict so it’s very unlikely we will ever know the actual reason they left. But my background is in producing and my degree is in film, so I can at least make an educated guess that’s not just a random shot in the dark or just trying to rile people up.
I think what’s so annoying about most of the alarmist takes thus far is that people are assuming it’s some ridiculous cause from the Netflix side of production. People are willingly not acknowledging this project was a co-production between Netflix and Nickelodeon/Viacom…who not only own the rights to Avatar the Last Airbender, but it’s one of their most recognizable legacy IP.
Also historically speaking Nickelodeon and Viacom have normally been the ones mishandling the IP. With the original live-action iteration of the show they ignored the creative input from the original show creators and left it in the hands of a filmmaker who didn’t align with the spirit of the show.
With the sequel series, Legend of Korra, Nickelodeon and Viacom mishandled the production by cutting episode budgets last minute, airing the show in time slots that were inconvenient to the audience, and even banished the last season of the show to air solely online. Nickelodeon essentially left the show to die.
It’s common knowledge that a lot of the negative aspects of Legend of Korra occurred because of this mishandled leadership leading to a lot of rushed writing and production and not because of the creative team.
I’m not saying that Nickelodeon is the reason that the creative differences were occurring. But I am saying that it might not solely be on Netflix. And there’s no way that Nickelodeon would want to age up the characters to have sex scenes in their children's TV show. If anything Nickelodeon has been trying harder in recent years to preserve the legacy and tone of their IP.
In the past few years, Nickelodeon has produced television movies and specials to bring back beloved IP like Hey Arnold!, Invader Zim, and Rocko’s Modern Life. Two of those projects even aired on Netflix. All of them stayed true to the spirit of the shows and brought back the original creators.
The productions of those specials and films were so creatively driven that they even allowed the creators to address subject matter that would typically be viewed as too controversial to cover in children's television. Like how the Rocko special had an entire plot about a trans woman. It wasn’t coded as being about that like cartoons would typically have to do, it was in the show literally.
Nickelodeon has also had more interest in recent years of bringing back the spirit of their old IP and teaming up with different networks for it. Besides the aforementioned projects, Spongebob has 3 spin-offs currently in the works.
One of these shows is a music-based show centered around Squidward for Netflix. The other show is themed like a late-night talk show hosted by Patrick and his family for CBS’s streaming service. The last is a miniseries about the characters as children going to summer camp, which I believe is still planned to be aired on TV.
All of this is to say that Nickelodeon has been much more experimental in the past 4–5 years. So even if Nickelodeon had a history of mishandling Avatar, the doesn’t necessarily mean they are with this project. They are most likely trying to maintain the integrity of the brand. Which must be hard because the only aspect of the Avatar brand that is universally loved is the original show. Everything else is viewed as terrible, or in the case of Korra is just kind of divisive for people.
On the Netflix side, one of the reasons I always had doubts about this live-action remake (besides it feeling unnecessary) was because I’m not sure if Netflix could handle the budget.
The scope of Avatar the Last Airbender is quite large, including many large scale cities all within a fantasy setting. Most of those cities only are used for an episode or two. This requires a massive budget, the likes of which Netflix has yet to make.
Even their other large scale genre films and television don’t even reach this scope. Their superhero shows largely shy away from showing the powers. Their Marvel TV shows mostly stayed in abandoned alleys and hallways so they could use their budget for more expensive scenes.
But there isn’t really a cheap or smaller-scale version of this show that could be made unless you made drastic changes.
Especially now, when Netflix is having more and more issues with their spending. A lot of their shows are getting canceled, even their popular shows like Bojack Horseman. Shows that a few years ago would get a new season greenlit almost immediately are now getting canceled after one or two seasons.
Some of their shows that suffer this fate, like Tuca and Bertie, found homes in other places but most haven’t been as lucky.
And that’s why I wouldn’t be shocked if the Avatar remake ends up being canceled.
I have written before about how the creators leaving the project could lead to a better product. A new voice telling the story would at least offer a different experience than the same people regurgitating the same thing they told us 15 years ago.
But that being said, Netflix has been more cautious about its funding. It helps that it isn’t the sole financier of this series but a reason that it’s taken so long to roll camera on this project does probably come down to budget.
I think the cheapest way to make this show would require an investment I’m not sure Netflix would be willing to make. This show should be filmed in a manner similar to The Mandalorian. In that big set dome surrounded by screens that have a game engine running on them to digitally build sets around the actors. Then your practical budget is limited to the sets and props the actors physically interact with. No need to physically build new sets for every episode.
It wouldn’t solve all the potential issues that could arise while making it, but it would solve a lot. But I’m not sure if any company not named Disney would have the resources to do this.
Nickelodeon has also been changing its strategy for its shows as I mentioned earlier, so it would not shock me either if they wanted to move production to a different network.
I think just canceling the show outright would be more likely than that, but it’s still a possibility.
If the budget of this project really is too much, that could be why it’s taken so long to make. And it is uncharacteristic of Netflix to announce something so early and there still isn’t anything to show for it.
That in itself is what I think is one of the death signs on this show.
Will the show ultimately be canceled though? I can’t say. I don’t know everything that’s going behind the scenes at either company, but it would not surprise me at this point.
Will the fans be upset if it gets canceled? Honestly, I don’t think so. Avatar fans seem mostly interested in new stories at this point.
Even for me, my dream Avatar project isn’t even a show. I just want a comic that tells a bunch of one-off stories that happened between the two shows in continuity. Just a couple slice of life stuff that lets me spend some time with the characters again.
Either way, I just hope that whatever is next for the franchise, it sparks the same level of creativity and positivity that the original shows gave their fans.
