The departure of original creators of the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender from the Netflix adaptation bummed out showrunner Albert Kim.

Netflix recently came out with the live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. The promotional material and trailers of the show impressed audiences and they were expecting great things from the series after M. Night Shyamalan’s dismal 2010 adaptation. The series was released on Netflix on February 22, 2024.

While the show was on top of Netflix charts and watched by many people, fans of the original show were underwhelmed by the adaptation’s lack of key elements that were integral to the original show’s narrative. A new report has now come out about the original creators of the show initially being part of crafting the adaptation but later leaving the show.

Albert Kim Was Devastated By The Departure of the Creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender 

Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created the beloved animated Nickelodeon animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender which ran from 2005-08 for three seasons. Filmmakers like M. Night Shyamalan have tried to adapt it to live-action, but it turned out to be a total disappointment. Recently, Netflix tried its hand at adapting it with its recent series Avatar: The Last Airbender with Gordon Cormier as Aang. 

While it was considered an improvement from Shyamalan’s adaption, fans were still underwhelmed by the various narrative and stylistic choices of the show. The show’s not living up to their expectations, and it may have to do with the fact that the original creators left the show after initially being involved with it.

Series developer Albert Kim revealed that when he got the job to develop the adaptation for Netflix, he instantly contacted DiMartino and Konietzko and they had a wonderful discussion about the potential of the new series. The original creators were involved with the project even before Kim came on board and he was bummed when they suddenly decided to leave the project. He said (via Buzzfeed),

“When I got the call [to work on the series], I was really excited just for nothing else [other] than the opportunity to talk to Bryan and Mike, and kind of indulge my inner nerd about the show. I really enjoyed that process. I enjoyed collaborating with them and working with them. At around the time I had written the pilot episode, they had decided, for personal reasons, to leave the project.

And I can’t really speak to those reasons. They had been involved, obviously, for some time before I joined the project. And I was bummed about it because I genuinely enjoyed working with them, talking to them, all of that. And I had hoped we could continue.”

The original creators seem to have had some creative differences with Netflix regarding the direction of the series and the elements that need to be included in it. Despite the series getting renewed for a second and third season, the consensus among people is that the show completely ignored significant plot points of the original show, resulting in an unsatisfying experience.

Albert Kim Knew That Some Fans Will Not Be Happy With Some Missed Opportunities

Albert Kim is the developer of the new Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The adaptation consists of 8 episodes and despite the longer runtime, the whole scope and narrative of the original animated series was impossible to cover. Thus, the makers had to pick and choose which elements to include and discard.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kim revealed that there were many iconic and amazing scenes from the original series that he wanted to execute, but it was impossible financially. He admits that some fans will not be happy with the show missing some of their favorite scenes from the original show and it hurts him that he wasn’t able to include them. He said,

“Well, there’s certain things you can draw that when you’re trying to translate in live-action are incredibly complicated, both practically and financially. There are so many epic sequences in the original series that I wish we could have done, but it would have just broken the bank many times over. I’m sure there will be fans who are not happy that they didn’t get their favorite episodes and their favorite characters, and all I can say is it pains me too.”

Kim’s concerns were exactly the reason why the series received polarizing reactions. Fans hope that the makers of the show realize the criticism of the first season and improve it in future seasons. Fans can watch the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.