Avatar: The Last Airbender animated movie in the works

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Avatar: The Last Airbender is heading to the big-screen, and thankfully, it won't be in the form of a live-action M. Night Shyamalan movie this time around. It was announced today that Nickelodeon is launching Avatar Studios, a new division that will create original content based on the Avatar franchise, and the first project will be an animated Avatar feature-film.

Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who created Avatar: The Last Airbender and sequel series The Legend of Korra, will be running Avatar Studios as co-chief creative officers, so it stands to reason that they'll be involved in the feature-film as well. Production on the project is expected to begin later this year. "Avatar: The Last Airbender and Korra have grown at least ten-fold in popularity since their original hit runs on Nickelodeon, and Ramsey Naito and I are incredibly excited to have Mike and Bryan’s genius talent on board to helm a studio devoted to expanding their characters and world into new content and formats for fans everywhere," said Brian Robbins, President, ViacomCBS Kids & Family. "Creator-driven stories and characters have long been the hallmarks of Nickelodeon, and Avatar Studios is a way to give Mike and Bryan the resources and runway to open up their imaginations even more and dive deeper into the action and mythology of Avatar as we simultaneously expand upon that world and the world of content available on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon."

This isn't the only project based on Avatar: The Last Airbender in the works as Netflix has also been developing a live-action TV series. Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were once involved in the series, but they officially exited the production due to creative differences last summer. "Many of you have been asking me for updates about the ‘Avatar’ live-action Netflix series," DiMartino wrote in a blog post. "I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production." The pair had signed on as executive producers and showrunners, but apparently "things did not go as we had hoped." The live-action series is still moving forward, albeit without DiMartino and Konietzko's involvement.