New rumors about the next animated series in the beloved
Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise have emerged, detailing who the new Avatar will be and snippets of the plot.
The last animated series in the
Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise,
The Legend of Korra, concluded its run in 2014. However, in 2021, Nickelodeon launched Avatar Studios, a new studio helmed by original
Avatar: The Last Airbender and
The Legend of Korra creators and executive producers Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, to produce new films and series set in the world of
Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Avatar Studios is currently producing a sequel film to the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series set to star the original characters as adults. However, it has been revealed that the studio is also currently working on a new sequel series to The Legend of Korra, which will focus on a new Avatar.
In a new report from
Knight Edge Media, the series is currently in production, with two episodes of the upcoming sequel series of
The Legend of Korra finished as of July 2024 in the storyboard and animatic stage of production with voiceovers.
Through these two episodes, the outlet further verified its previous reports that the next Avatar will be a amputee, missing her left leg, and will be accompanied by an animal guide in the form of "a large feline-type creature." At the beginning of the series, she will be seen as a homeless young girl.
The series will seemingly take place in a futuristic setting where "people ride on hoverboards," but they admitted it could also be Airbenders air surfing as the Airbenders should be pretty well established by this time. However, considering how much technology advanced between Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, it wouldn't be a surprise to see hoverboards.
A source for Knight Edge Media also gave further context for the state of the Avatar Universe in this sequel series. However, the outlet stipulated that these plot details should be labeled as rumors since they couldn't independently verify them.
The biggest change is that "the four nations do not exist anymore" in this sequel series due to "some unknown cataclysmic event" that is stopped by Avatar Korra. Somehow, as a result, the new Avatar will be forced to reshape the world into seven new locations/countries, or "havens," which could be the subtitle for the series.
This would effectively make Avatar Korra the most powerful Avatar known in the lore due to her ability to break and remake the world on her own. I’m speculating, but I assume this event is what ultimately kills Avatar Korra, leading to the reincarnation of the Earth Avatar.
As for the new Avatar herself, she will be an earthbender and "be from a set of identical twins." These twins will supposedly "be the focal point of the series," with one raised by the White Lotus in a life of wealth and luxury, as she is seen as the more powerful of the two, while the other, presumably the true Avatar, as a street orphan growing up on the streets of one of the new “havens” with her animal guide. It’s unknown if they are separated at birth or as toddlers, but the second twin somehow ends up cast aside and forgotten.
The twins will eventually be reunited and train under the White Lotus, with the non-Avatar twin still being more obviously powerful and better trained.
Knight Edge Media speculates that the series could eventually introduce both having a part of Raava in them; thus, technically, both are “the Avatar,” but that is unknown. They could also play with the Dark and Light Avatar stories again as seen in Legend of Korra Book 2.
These plot details should sound familiar to big fans of Avatar, as many of them are similar to those seen in the Chronicles of the Avatar novel series. Specifically, the ones focused on Avatar Kyoshi and Roku.
The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee revolved around an earthbender, Yun, being misidentified and trained as the Avatar for years. At the same time, Kyoshi lived as a street orphan before being identified as the true Avatar. A plot detail strikingly similar to this new Avatar's twin being mistaken as the next reincarnation.
The Avatar having a twin is also a concept lifted from Randy Ribay's The Reckoning of Roku, in which Roku also had a twin. However, he died before Roku was announced as the Avatar, but it still caused him a great deal of imposter syndrome, which could be the cause for either twin in this new Avatar series.
There's also the idea of just how difficult it will be to find this new Avatar. It was already a problem in The Rise of Kyoshi due to the massive size of the Earth Nation, but adding how the world is more of a melting pot, it's not surprising the new Avatar will be misidentified again.
As for the Avatar's twin, who won't prematurely die, it'll be interesting to see whether they become another antagonist like Yun, who was raised for years believing the Avatar or reconcile not being destined to bring balance to the world and support their sister.
As mentioned above, the original
Avatar: The Last Airbender and
The Legend of Korra creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino are also currently hard at work finishing up the previously announced Avatar Aang feature film,
Aang: The Last Airbender, that is set to star Eric Nam (
Transplant,
Saturday Night Live Korea) as Aang; Jessica Matten (
Dark Winds) as Katara; Román Zaragoza (
Ghosts) will voice Sokka; and Dionne Quan (
Rugrats,
The Fairly OddParents,
All Grown Up!) as Toph, with Dave Bautista voicing a currently unknown villain character. The film is currently set to be released on January 20th, 2026.
The studio is also simultaneously working on several other projects. They have two other feature films at some stage of development, and Knight Edge Media have been told that they are not sequels to the Avatar Aang film but will be standalone movies (possibly about Avatar Kyoshi or Avatar Korra).
Avatar Studios' Untitled Earth Avatar TV Series has no set release date, although the series is expected to debut exclusively on Paramount+.
Originally published: December 12, 2024.
