The real reason the last airbender never got a sequel
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The Last Airbender movie received universal backlash, which meant M. Night Shyamalan"s plans a sequel - which would"ve dove deeper into Avatar: The Last Airbender"s lore - ultimately didn"t come lớn fruition. Though it ultimately proved a failure, there was a time when a live-action adaptation of Avatar helmed by acclaimed The Sixth Sense director truly excited fans & appeared to portend a new entry into the upper echelons of truyền thông franchise success stories, right beside the likes of Harry Potter and Star Wars. But, as audiences know, a different fate befell the trilogy-that-never-was, và although it takes nothing away from the brilliance of the show, it forever rendered Avatar forays into live action fraught with danger.
In 2010, plans for an Avatar: The Last Airbender film trilogy were well underway: Shyamalan, having fallen in love with the show while watching it with his children, began mobilizing an effort to bring each of the three seasons lớn the big screen. What happened next was, in short, a disaster. The miserable first installment killed its siblings in the cradle, arguably taking its director"s career và credibility with it - for a time.
Related: What Went Wrong With The Last Airbender Movie
Avatar fans" desires lớn see the full extent of the vibrant four nations realized in live-action, if any remained after the 2010 film, were doused lượt thích water tossed on a fire. The Netflix acquisition and remake briefly rekindled hope, only lớn come crashing down when writers Brian Konietzko và Michael Dante DiMartino left the new live-action Avatar project due to lớn creative differences, reanimating fears of the previous live-action adaptation. Still, prior to all this, Shyamalan"s plans for a Last Airbender sequel (and trilogy) were quite intriguing.
The name of the franchise game in the early 2010s was "darker". The tail end of the Harry Potter series had ventured far from its initial childish whimsy & veered into gritty, gut-wrenching despondence. Christopher Nolan"s edgy Dark Knight trilogy was recontextualizing franchise properties through the lens of high-art, & the fledgling DCEU brought anh dũng back lớn theaters in muted colors with Man of Steel. It would stand khổng lồ reason Shyamalan, whose works rarely enjoy camp or brightness even in small doses, would have steered his trilogy directly into this trend, opting for a dark-and-edgy movie sequel. Indeed, Shyamalan himself was quoted describing a potential sequel saying “In the second part, which is my favourite, it gets darker, things go wrong and Aang makes a lot of bad choices. I love that as a second act of the story” (via M. Night Fans).
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Shyamalan isn"t off-base in his assessment. Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 features some of the most harrowing challenges that face Team Avatar: the opening episode"s premise has Aang deliberately relive trauma in an unhealthy effort to lớn unlock the Avatar state. Their journey through the Earth Kingdom features unpolished portraits of refugees of war, corrupt political conspiracies, và sociopathic brainwashing. Two of the show"s most heralded episodes "Tales of bố Sing Se" (season 2, episode 15) và "Appa"s Lost Days" (season 2, episode 16) earn the season high marks for inducing viewers" tears. Such painful, at times downright brutal subject matter, combined with an industry trend lớn bolster such, could"ve made for a truly dark movie sequel.
Further compounding on the darkness of The Last Airbender 2 would be the central villain, introduced in live-action size at the very end of the 2010 film. Cruel and calculated, Azula etched herself into the minds of Avatar fans with her dogged and inhuman pursuit of Team Avatar beginning in season 2. Shyamalan described his script for the second movie, telling MTV News: "I"ve written a draft that I"m really happy with & is darker and richer, và it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who"s kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I"m excited about that."
But for all her brilliance as a character, she hardly can claim sole ownership of villainy in season 2. Jet serves as an interestingly ambiguous ally, then antagonist, then ally again for Team Avatar. Zuko and Iroh enjoy a deep & rich arc of their own. But most interesting, perhaps, as an additional force of evil to lớn oppose Aang và his friends is the dẻo Li and their calmly nefarious mastermind Long Feng. Should The Last Airbender 2 have taken a darker tone, widespread governmental corruption would"ve provided an interesting avenue to lớn execute such a vision, and Long Feng would"ve been the poster child for this plot.
Related: Avatar: What The Last Airbender Cast và Crew Think About Shyamalan"s Movie
With all these threads, antagonists, & story arcs, it becomes clear that the task of whittling down trăng tròn episodes into two hours presents an arduous challenge, one too great for any director khổng lồ reasonably overcome. A point of criticism frequently levied at The Last Airbender was that it failed khổng lồ employ any of the depth, richness, and world-building of the source material, instead stopping to situate audiences in a familiar scene from the series, read expositional dialogue , then move onto the next forgettable scene. Season 2 arguably packs more content into its runtime than its predecessor, meaning that perhaps a selection of fewer plot threads & characters done well would"ve had a greater chance at success than more done poorly. If it were made, audeinces would"ve seen whether Shyamalan learned that lesson from the first film.
The Kyoshi Warriors Would Have Appeared
Though cut from The Last Airbender, the Kyoshi Warriors would have made a triumphant introduction in The Last Airbender 2. Shyamalan was quoted as having cut them out of the first film (and out of The Last Airbender DVD extras) explicitly because he was saving them for the sequel, & he didn"t want khổng lồ have to lớn reintroduce them. It stands lớn reason they would"ve factored heavily into his sequel plans, moving their season 1 introduction into the second movie, while keeping much of their season 2 functions in tact.
The Kyoshi Warriors play no small part in the arc of Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2. Team Avatar makes a return visit to their eponymous island, they track và help save a lost Appa, và ultimately they provide surreptitious entry for Azula and her compatriots by virtue of their capture. Fans hoping lớn see the Kyoshi Warriors" distinctive look brought lớn life in the first film would surely have had their hopes realized in a sequel. In fact, leader Suki"s relationship with Sokka could have remedied some of the latter"s flaws in his The Last Airbender version, possibly adding the comedy và heart so absent from the live-action rendering.
