 |
| Avatar: Seven Havens | Nickelodeon |
Original voice cast members Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang), Jack DeSena (Sokka), Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph), Jennie Kwan (Suki), Dante Basco (Zuko) and Dee Bradley Baker (Appa), series composer Jeremy Zuckerman and creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino gathered in the San Diego Convention Center's Ballroom 20 to reflect on the show’s legacy and the future of the Avatarverse in a conversation moderated by Janet Varney, the voice of Korra in spin-off series
The Legend of Korra. Roughly 5,000 fans packed the room, and were also treated to a video message from Mae Whitman, the voice of Katara, along with surprises and sneak peeks into the future of the Avatar-verse and tons of exciting tidbits for the audience.
First up was a tribute video honoring 20 years of Avatar fandom, spotlighting iconic moments from the series and tracing its journey from the Comic-Con pilot debut to the show’s rise as a cultural phenomenon. Mae Whitman (voice of Katara) shared a heartfelt video expressing her deep gratitude for being part of the Avatar-verse, reflecting on growing up with the show and her excitement to share it with her own child.
Fans in attendance were treated to a reunion of the original voice cast: Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang), Jack De Sena (Sokka), Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph), Jennie Kwan (Suki), Dante Basco (Zuko), and Dee Bradley Baker (Appa). The cast was joined by series composer Jeremy Zuckerman and creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, who also shared a deep dive into the 20-year legacy surrounding the beloved franchise.
One exciting reveal was a first-look image from the upcoming new
Avatar animated series,
Avatar: Seven Havens, which was
announced by Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios earlier this year.
The series, currently in production at Nickelodeon’s Burbank studio, will be split into two “Books,” each comprising 13 half-hour episodes. Seven Havens is created and executive produced by DiMartino & Konietzko, with Airbender universe veteran Ethan Spaulding as executive producer and Sehaj Sethi as co-executive producer.
Avatar: Seven Havens is set in a world shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar, after Korra — but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse. The series takes place following the events of The Legend of Korra.
Featured in the new artwork is this new Earthbender, Pavi, along with her cat monkey, Geet, and her mentor Jae, who is an Airbender. In the distant background we see the city in which they live, Allura.
Avatar: Seven Havens is being produced under the Avatar Studios banner from Nickelodeon Animation in Burbank with Michael DiMartino (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra) and Bryan Konietzko (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra) serving as co-creators and executive producers.
Jeremy Zuckerman is reportedly returning to the franchise to score Avatar: Seven Havens.
"It's something totally different," Konietzko told the panel audience. "We like to change up the style. We like to make each project its own thing. As you can see, it still feels like Avatar, but the world is very different. You'll have to tune in to find out why."
Avatar: Seven Havens will be comprised of 26 episodes that will be split into two seasons, Book 1 and Book 1, both consisting of 13 30-minute episodes. No premiere date or casting information has been revealed yet.
Seven Havens isn’t the only
Avatar project coming up. There’s also the feature film
The Legend of Aang: The Last Avatar, which is coming to theaters on Oct. 9, 2026. The cast includes Eric Nam as Aang, Jessica Matten as Katara, Roman Zaragoza as Sokka, Dionne Quan as Toph, plus Steven Yeun and Dave Bautista as the mysterious villain.
If that wasn’t enough, the ATLA celebration offered live table reads from three of Varney’s favorite Avatar episodes: “The Serpent’s Pass / Appa’s Lost Days,” “The Western Air Temple” and “Sozin’s Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang” with the original cast and creators bringing favorite scenes to life.
Zuckerman then headed up a show-stopping “Secret Tunnel” sing-along, featuring a video montage complete with scenes from various Avatar episodes and animated visuals.
Fans of the franchise can keep celebrating all weekend at Nickelodeon’s booth (#4113) on the convention floor. Experience the four elements–Water, Earth, Fire, and Air–through immersive activations, photo ops, and interactive booth activities, along with outdoor experiences.
'Are There Pirates?' Avatar Cast Teases Seven Havens' Peg Legged Protagonist & Setting
CBR spoke with the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra about the upcoming sequel series, Avatar: Seven Havens, at San Diego Comic Con 2025. Avatar: Seven Havens is one of many new projects currently in development by Nickelodeon that take place in the anime-inspired world of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
CBR interviewed the main cast of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra at San Diego Comic Con at the San Diego Convention Center in California. At the 20th anniversary panel for Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon revealed the brand-new animated TV series, Avatar: Seven Havens, which chronologically takes place after the events of The Legend of Korra. In the interview, the cast discussed the new setting and characters of Seven Havens, which shares the series' familiar whimsy, but is set in a more dire environment.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast Tease New Details About Upcoming Sequel Series at SDCC 2025
This is the first visual look at the brand-new Avatar anime series by Nickelodeon, currently titled Avatar: Seven Havens, which features twin protagonists as heroes. Image via Nickelodeon
According to the cast, they weren't sure how much of Avatar: Seven Havens would be publicly revealed by Nickelodeon at San Diego Comic Con. However, they were told a visual of the show would be shared at the anniversary event. The first promotional visual of Avatar: Seven Havens features the new twin protagonists, who specialize in Earthbending, as they traverse a cataclysmic environment with their half-cat, half-lemur-like pet. The young girl is said to be the new Avatar, inheriting the title from Korra. However, the girl is viewed more as humanity's destruction than its savior in this new, ill-fated world.
Janet Varney, the voice of Korra and the moderator of the Avatar 20th anniversary panel, expressed her excitement over the new show. "Well, when Bryan [Konietzko] told me that we were going to be able to show an image from Seven Havens, that definitely was a huge deal," she said, "and I didn't even know necessarily that we were going to hear more, that we were going to hear character names, and that we were going to, of course, I'm the nerd that was like, 'I need to hear more about that hybrid animal.' And it's just such a beautiful thing, and Jennie [Kwan] was talking about this earlier, like the fact that it is, it is part of the universe, but it is its own beautiful new piece of art that they are so proud of, and that's, that's part of it. It's just knowing that it's going to be its own perfect thing."
Although only a short amount of time has passed since the first visual reveal of Avatar: Seven Havens, the original Avatar cast is well aware of all the fan theories spawned from the Comic Con reveal. For example, the mysterious crystals that inhabit the new environment, and the peg leg of the new Avatar -- making her the first disabled hero in the Avatar franchise. As one of the cast members jokes, "She has a peg leg! How did it happen? What's going on? Are there pirates?!"
At the moment, a release date for Avatar: Seven Havens has yet to be announced. The original Avatar series and The Legend of Korra are available on streaming services like Netflix and Paramount+. The description for The Last Airbender reads: "Siblings Katara and Sokka wake young Aang from a long hibernation and learn he's an Avatar, whose air-bending powers can defeat the evil Fire Nation."
###
Avatar: The Last Airbender's Voice of Toph Reveals The Iconic Scene She Auditioned With
In a new interview with CBR at San Diego Comic Con, Toph voice actor Michaela Jill Murphy revealed the very first scene she auditioned for in Avatar: The Last Airbender. And it’s iconic. CBR recently sat down with Michaela Jill Murphy for a round-table interview at SDCC alongside her fellow ATLA costars to discuss the series.
Also in attendance at the Avatar panel were voice actors Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang), Jack DeSena (Sokka), Jennie Kwan (Suki), Dante Basco (Zuko), Janet Varney (Korra), and Avatar series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. The group discussed their time with the series, and recalled fond memories they have of their time with the hit anime-inspired classic. During this discussion, Michella Jill Murphy went into how she first got the role of Toph as an 11-year-old actress just getting her start.
Toph Voice Actor Reveals The Epic ATLA Scene She Used to Audition For The Role
Michaela Jill Murphy told CBR during their discussion that the first scene she used to audition for the part of Toph in Avatar: The Last Airbender was her introductory fight against the Boulder. As she explained, “whenever I was sending this Toph stuff, it was just the blind bandit scene, just her against the boulder, but just that scene.” Murphy held a sarcastic tone when mentioning that it was “just the blind bandit scene”, because any Avatar fan knows just how major that moment was for her character.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph is first introduced as a mysterious blind arena fighter, who goes by the moniker “The Blind Bandit.” The first time Aang, Sokka and Katara encounter Toph, they bear witness to her duel against a hulking brute brawler known as The Boulder. As a prodigious master Earthbender, Toph easily disposes of the Boulder in seconds, a feat which leaves Aang’s party quite impressed. This being Michaela Jill Murphy’s very first introduction to the series is impressive, given the immediate confidence she brought to Toph’s character in that scene.
I auditioned so much better because I had a good script.
- Michaela Jill Murphy
As she further explained during the SDCC interview, Murphy approached the scene with a youthful excitement: “I just came in, and I was like, ‘heck yeah, let's beat this guy!’ and it worked.” At the time, Murphy was only around 11 years old, but despite her inexperience she felt her audition was largely carried by the series’ “good writing.” Murphy attributes the success of her performance as Toph to the series’ “good script”, explaining that “I auditioned so much better because I had a good script.”
Recently announced at SDCC was a brand-new Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series titled Avatar: Seven Havens. The series will reportedly follow twin Earthbenders, one of whom is chosen to be the next Avatar. The sequel series' describtion reads: “A world shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra – but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.”
While there’s no release date for Avatar: Seven Havens, fans can still look forward to the release of the upcoming feature-length film The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, coming to theaters on October 9, 2026.
###
'The Last Airbender' concert helps craft new era for animated franchise
November 11, 2025
Summary
- Concert celebrates 20th anniversary of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'
- Original creative team from animated series involved in concert
- New projects from Avatar Studios include feature film and 'Seven Havens' series
LOS ANGELES, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Fans sang along on Sunday in Los Angeles to celebrate the 20th anniversary orchestra concert of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which features music from the popular 2005 animated Nickelodeon series.
"It's really cool to get a younger generation in to see an orchestra concert and get 'em to see something that they're excited about because they know and love Avatar,” conductor Emily Marshall told Reuters at the Dolby Theatre.
The 2025 "Avatar: The Last Airbender" tour takes place in over 80 cities across the globe and is based on the story of a boy named Aang, the last Airbender and the world's protector called the Avatar, who journeys to restore balance despite a war dominated by the Fire Nation.
Marshall believes it was important to have a team so dedicated to ensuring the show was authentic for fans.
"It is really special that the whole original creative team of "Avatar" was involved in the creation of our show here," she said.
Original composer for the show, Jeremy Zuckerman, never imagined that he would go from knowing very little about scoring music to composing for an award-winning franchise.
However, the course of his life changed in 2005 when he began working on the music for the show with co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
"It's so satisfying finally seeing these pieces performed by humans, because originally all the orchestra was samples," Zuckerman said.
The live performance offers fans a chance to hear Asian instruments like the Erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument, and the Taiko drums from Japan.
Some of the concert music features the "Agni Kai" battle music and the campy song "Secret Tunnel."
DiMartino and Konietzko spent two years creating a live-action adaptation of the first “Avatar” series for Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab until parting ways with the studio in 2020, explaining that “creative differences” caused them to depart the project.
The live-action show debuted in 2024 under the leadership of Albert Kim for the first season. Jabbar Raisani and Christine Boylan will be directing the next two seasons after Kim stepped down in 2024.
In 2021, the "Avatar" co-creators announced that they were teaming up with Nickelodeon again to form their own production company and division of Nickelodeon called Avatar Studios that will continue the world-building of the original show with new projects.
"The two main things that we've got in the pipeline and hopefully coming out in the next year or two is the big feature film starring Aang and his friends. They're a little bit older now. The animation is looking incredible and I can't wait until it shows in theaters and everybody can enjoy it," DiMartino said at the Dolby.
"Then we have ‘Seven Havens,’ which is about a girl named Avatar Pavi, who is the Avatar after Korra. She's an Earthbender. So, a lot of mystery around the show and it's also gorgeous kind of new style," he added.
Zuckerman, who also composed the music for the sequel "The Legend of Korra", will return for the upcoming film "The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender” and the series "Avatar: Seven Havens."
###
First Image From Avatar: Seven Havens Revealed | SDCC 2025
Wind in our sails.
Hot off the press from Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender 20th anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 is the first image from Avatar: Seven Havens.
IGN was in Ballroom 20 for the reveal, and captured the image [above].
Co-creator Bryan Konietzko said this Earthbender is named Pavi, who we see with her cat monkey, Geet, and her mentor Jae, who is an Airbender. This image shows the city in which they live, Allura.
Avatar: Seven Havens is a 26-episode, 2D animated series following a young Earthbender who is the next Avatar following Avatar Korra. It's co-created by Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and the aforementioned Konietzko.
Konietzko said: "It's something totally different. We like to change up the style. We like to make each project its own thing. As you can see, it still feels like Avatar, but the world is very different. You'll have to tune in to find out why."
Nickelodeon has said Seven Havens is set in a world “shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra - but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.”
Avatar: Seven Havens will be split into two seasons comprising a 13-episode Book 1 and a 13-episode Book 2. This is the first mainline TV series from Avatar Studios.
Meanwhile, during the panel, Konietzko also teased The Last Airbender: The Legend of Aang, a new animated feature film due out October 9, 2026. Konietzko didn't show anything of the film, but did say the footage that has been animated is 2D animation with deep canvass environments. "There is nothing that looks like this," he said, before adding: "it's just gonna blow you away." Expect more at next year's SDCC.
###
From “Leaves From The Vine” To The Tsungi Horn: "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Composer Jeremy Zuckerman On How The Music Came To Life
Jeremy Zuckerman shares stories behind Avatar: The Last Airbender's unforgettable music and its journey to a global concert stage.
The music of Avatar: The Last Airbender evokes such powerful emotion throughout the series.
Orchestra performing on stage with a conductor leading. Musicians play violins, cellos, and other instruments. The scene is dimly lit
When the show premiered 20 years ago, its storytelling, animation, and world-building were groundbreaking, but its score elevated Avatar to an entirely new level. Just hearing the opening chords of “Leaves From the Vine” is enough to bring Avatar fans to tears (myself included).
To celebrate Avatar's 20th anniversary and the Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert orchestral tour, I sat down with composer Jeremy Zuckerman to discuss crafting the sound of Aang’s world.
Jeremy: I was going to CalArts for graduate school, and there I met [Avatar sound designer] Benjamin Wynn, who was doing the undergraduate program. We were both working with computer music, and it was the cutting-edge technology of that time. Computer music was just starting to become more accessible to people, so it was a really exciting time to get into it.
Ben was sharing an apartment with Bryan Konietzko, the co-creator of Avatar, who was a longtime friend of Ben's brother. Bryan would come to events at CalArts, and he was super fascinated by music technology. He was making his own electronic music, and is also a really good guitarist. He really loves music and being around musicians.
We became good friends, and mutual nerds — fast forward a couple of years, and he and Mike DiMartino created Avatar.
Jeremy: Bryan and Mike got a green light, and they asked Ben and me if we wanted to handle all the sound. We pitched an idea that we would think of the music and sound design as one element, and you wouldn't really be able to tell which is which. That was the original idea.
Avatar wasn't quite the right project for that, but Bryan was impressed with the idea. He wanted someone who thought about sound with a fresh take.
Originally, Ben and I handled both sound design and music for the pilot, but we quickly realized it wasn’t sustainable for the full series. There just wasn't enough time.
Ben took over the sound design. I had my traditional music background from Berklee, so I took over the music.
Another early idea was to avoid using traditional Western instruments.
Jeremy: There was another concept we tried, which was to use no traditional Western instruments. Imagine you're in a room with all these instruments, and a lot of them you've never seen before. You just experiment with them and make sounds with them. What does that sound like?
It was a really cool concept, but it wasn't practical — we didn’t have the time or access to make it work.
We were still very informed by that original concept of using non-Western instruments, and particularly Chinese instruments. I started studying that and integrated it into the score. There were a couple of other instruments in there, like the duduk, which is Armenian, but mostly it was Chinese influence. It was kind of a fusion of ideas.
When working on episodes, there was only time for one round of revisions.
Jeremy: Once the scene was fully animated and the dialogue was recorded, it would come to me. We'd have a spotting session, where we'd spend a couple of hours reviewing all the scenes and taking extensive notes. Then I'd have a certain amount of time to do the first pass. I would get feedback and do revisions. We would only have time for one round of revisions, and that was it.
The music is very connected to the action of the scene and the story. For example, can we bring the music down here and make room for this joke? There's an emotional change here; can we support that with the music?
Jeremy created the orchestral instruments using MIDI, and performed the non-Western instruments himself.
Jeremy: All the orchestral instruments were MIDI [Musical Instrument Digital Interface], but I performed and recorded much of the percussion and non-Western instruments, including the duduk, pipa, and guzheng, and various flutes.
There were a lot of limitations to MIDI; for example, you couldn't play the same note twice in a row. It would be from the same sample, and it would sound like a machine gun. They called it the "machine gun effect."
It was just me until the last four episodes, and sometimes Ben helped with percussion or chanting. The last four episodes were the first time that I could record live strings for Avatar.
There's a lot of finale stuff that I like a lot. When Ozai and Aang are first fighting, the strings are sort of going in and out of standard tuning. I really got in the weeds with that and got really specific.
Jeremy breaks down specific moments, like the Yuyan archers:
Jeremy: Along with MIDI I also used academic software, like this audio programming environment called SuperCollider, which I still use.
That was sort of my secret weapon. I used it for some pragmatic things, for example, the Yuyan archers. There's this chant in "The Blue Spirit," and it sounds like a whole bunch of people chanting together, like a "cha, cha, cha."
Ben and I recorded ourselves doing the chant. I then took a sample recording of a crowd cheering and imposed the amplitude of our vocals onto the crowd. When you combined them, it sounded like a huge group of people doing it.
The creation of the tsungi horn:
Jeremy: The tsungi horn was really cool. They created this instrument, and it's got a reed, but it's also got a big tuba-like bell. It's a fusion of instrument design ideas.
When it came time to make its sound I was thinking, "Well, it has a reed like a duduk." I had a duduk and a trombone sitting around. I just flicked the bell of the trombone and recorded that, and took a 200-millisecond piece of it. I used a process called convolution, which multiplies two sounds together, and it imposes the characteristics of one sound onto another.
I did a duduk performance, and then convolved this little sound of the trombone bell onto it, which gave it a brassy, metallic quality. It worked perfectly. I couldn't believe it!
Azula's iconic sound effect:
Jeremy: Azula's ding is a sample of a gamelan, which is an Indonesian instrument. There was a lot of gamelan at CalArts, and Ben and I were super into it. We even took some lessons there after we graduated. I was like, "I gotta figure out how to use gamelan in the score," and it felt right for Azula.
Jeremy reflects on "Leaves From the Vine:"
Jeremy: I was naive when I was first working on Avatar — I didn't know people even cared about soundtracks. That's how out of the loop I was with that. I was amazed to find out that people were interested in discussing the music. I always thought of it as just supporting the story.
I was definitely emotionally affected while working on certain scenes, such as the one with Iroh. I wrote the melody for "Leaves From the Vine." They sent me the script before I saw anything, so I didn't realize how emotional the scene was. I tried to write a cute little ditty, you know?
I knew it was working well when I got emotional. However, I had no idea people would respond the way they did.
Jeremy built the Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert tour.
Jeremy: The producers contacted me during the pandemic about building the show. I hired Brian Herald, who was fresh out of grad school, and he helped me a lot.
It's way more successful than I expected. I should have known, because the Avatar fanbase is so awesome and so passionate. The best part is the sense of community, of fans coming together, connecting, and sharing their love for Avatar.
I think my favorite part of the show is watching the audience and seeing the way they respond to each other. They're crying together and laughing, and it's such a beautiful thing.
GEA, the company that hired me to build the concert, did a wonderful job enlisting a slew of talented, deeply dedicated, and hard-working people to take the ATLA concert idea further than I could have ever imagined.
I also want to give credit to Jeff Adams, the original ATLA editor. I can't overstate enough how important Jeff was to the overall vision. He came in to design the video elements after the music was all laid out, and we had a really satisfying and unique collaboration. Every time I see the show I notice another beautiful, subtle, and brilliant thing Jeff did.
Jeremy re-recorded the soundtrack with an orchestra and is releasing albums for each season.
Jeremy: We've actually recorded all of them. Book Three is pretty much done, and the mixes are being finalized.
It's so nice to finally do it, because I always imagined the music with a real orchestra. At the time, it seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. It's so crazy — all these years later, it's finally coming to life.
(You can listen to Book One and Book Two on all streaming services.)
Jeremy is hard at work on the music for Seven Havens and 2026 feature film, The Legend of Aang.
Jeremy: I'm doing the music for Seven Havens, and I'm scoring The Legend of Aang. The film has been awesome because I have full access to a huge orchestra. Finally having the resources, support, and backing to do it all these years later is so cool.
The stakes are much higher, and the budget is much bigger than a series. I can try new things that I couldn't do for Avatar, because back then, we were limited by the technology. It's gonna be great. We're almost done; it's really close.
With the film, they did a great job staying true to Avatar. I'm really proud of it. I can't wait for people to see it.
I'm excited for Seven Havens, too. It's very different musically from other Avatar stuff. It's a completely different instrumental palette — much more synthesis-oriented. There's some other elements that I won't give away, but it's a story with a lot of heart.
Thank you, Jeremy, for a fascinating look into the music of Avatar! Catch Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert, on tour worldwide. (I've been, and it's an incredible show!)
Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert – The 20th Anniversary Tour presents a stunning live orchestral performance of the series’ beloved soundtrack, now elevated with a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience.
Follow Jeremy on Instagram at @jeremyzuck and visit the
official website for more information about the tour.
###
Avatar: The Last Airbender Co-Creator Bryan Konietzko Teases Upcoming Movie The Legend Of Aang
One of the Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators has given a tease about The Legend of Aang. The feature film will take place several years after the events of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated TV show. Though it is known that the film will follow the main crew as young adults, few other plot details have been revealed.
Avatar: The Last Airbender remains one of the most beloved animated TV shows of all time. Fans have high expectations, and have been let down before by M. Night Shyamalan's attempt, The Last Airbender feature film. Now, the release date of The Legend of Aang movie is becoming more tangibly in reach, as the film is set for release on October 9, 2026.
In a panel at New York Comic Con, Bryan Konietzko offered some exciting words regarding the upcoming Avatar the Last Airbender feature film. This was part of a 20th anniversary panel that took place on October 12, with co-panelists including Dante Basco, Jack De Sena, Mae Whitman, Michaela Jill Murphy, and Zach Tyler Eisen.
The co-creator touted the "absolutely incredible folks" working on the movie, and noted "they are working so hard right now." He says the film is "incredibly beautiful." He did not, however, have much to reveal by way of plot details. Check out the full quote from Konietzko below:
Bryan Konietzko: In almost exactly a year, we have our feature film, feature animated film. Directed by Avatar veteran Lauren Montgomery... and a bunch of other absolutely incredible folks, they are working so hard right now. I can't show you anything from it yet. Believe me, I tried. I was told no. But I really can't wait for you to see this. It is incredibly beautiful.
Konietzko's callout to Montgomery as a major creative voice behind The Legend of Aang is a particularly important point. Montgomery was previously a supervising producer for The Legend of Korra. While not nearly as beloved as the first series, this is a key part of the Avatar universe and the last animated installment the IP has gotten.
Konietzko is implying that Montgomery's experience in the IP is part of when makes her an incredible part of the team. By contrast, the team behind Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series did not include the original creators in a showrunning capacity.
This decision did not sit well among the original fan base. While the live-action show was still record-settingly popular, lovers of the original series often found it a diluted version of the original.
If the co-creator's words hold any weight for The Legend of Aang, the feature film will take a starkly different approach. The best thing that the team can do for the franchise is offer something new while also staying true to the original. Konietzko implies that The Legend of Aang might do just that.
###
Avatar Creators Made Korra Sequel Season Without Nickelodeon's Blessing
The creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender have offered a surprising revelation regarding how much work they did -- without Nickelodeon ever realizing it.
During an appearance on the latest episode of the Avatar: Braving the Elements podcast, hosted by voice actors Dante Basco (Zuko) and Janet Varney (Korra), franchise creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko explained the behind-the-scenes drama that went on during the development and production of The Legend of Korra. Surprisingly, much of it came from the relative lack of oversight on Nickelodeon's part. As Konietzko explained, "It was weird... [Nickelodeon] greenlit Book One [of The Legend of Korra] before they even talked to us. Before there was even an idea."
Avatar: The Last Airbender's Nickelodeon Only Greenlit 12 Episodes of Legend of Korra
Konietzko went on to recall Nickelodeon's relative lack of oversight regarding the development and production of The Legend of Korra, with the network only making a handful of requests regarding aspects of the series, such as the number of episodes per season. "I think we do our best work when we kind of fly under the radar and we're not bothered too much by the corporate overlords," Konietzko added, before recalling the fact that Nickelodeon initially expected to only run 12 episodes of The Legend of Korra before having the creators pivot to another project. "Then the overlords came, months later after not checking in, and we put together like a little sizzle [reel] out of the animatics that we had... And they were like, 'This is amazing. Why are we only doing 12 [episodes]?' They forgot their own angry mandate."
The Legend of Korra premiered in 2012, just four years after the end of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. The show followed Korra, Aang's successor as the Avatar, in her adventures and journeys through a decidedly more modern version of the very same world. The Legend of Korra was hailed by fans for its darker, more adult-oriented tone and themes, as well as the ways in which it continued to push the envelope in terms of what the franchise's iconic Benders are able to do with their unique elemental abilities. The Legend of Korra came to an end after four seasons and 52 episodes, although it has enjoyed numerous pieces of tie-in media in the years since.
More than a decade after The Legend of Korra came to a close, fans are finally on the verge of meeting the next Avatar when Avatar: Seven Havens premieres in 2027. The series will feature a young Earthbender who sets out to uncover the secrets behind her powers, as well as the reasons why being the Avatar is seen as the role of a harbinger of doom rather than any sort of heroic figure. This new Avatar will also have to face off against threats from both the mortal and spirit worlds -- something that neither Aang nor Korra ever really had to worry about. The official logline for Avatar: Seven Havens reads, "After a world-shattering disaster, a young Earthbender learns she's the post-Korra Avatar. Now seen as a harbinger of doom, she and her twin race to save the Seven Havens while pursued by humans and spirits alike."
###
Originally published: July 24, 2025 at 23:47 BST.
.jpg "'SpongeBob SquarePants' cast")
