San Diego Comic-Con 2022: First Avatar: The Last Airbender animated movie features the Gaang as adults

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is set for a welcome return with three new animated movies in the works, but Aang and his group of friends will no longer be the young teenagers they were in the original cartoon series.

At its San Diego Comic-Con panel, Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios announced the subject of its first film in the line-up, and it’s none other than the adventures of the Gaang as young adults.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Nickelodeon/status/1550611031390576640?s=20&t=_4_VBUM1oaK94HCDodPC1Q[/embed]

The news comes by a way of a recorded message by voice actress Janet Varney, which was later uploaded to Twitter for all to see.

“There have been a lot of rumours floating around, a lot of speculation, and a lot of excitement — I feel it too,” she said, looking up from a copy of an Avatar tie-in novel. “But we figured it was time to set the record straight. The first feature-length movie from Avatar Studios will be focusing on Avatar Aang and his friends.”

Prior to the confirmation, fans were hedging their bets on a story focused on Kyoshi, one of the past Avatars and the star of the novel seen in Varney’s hands.

Aang was the protagonist of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but as the Avatar, he had many past lives and at least one future one.

The warrior woman belonged to the former, while Korra, who Varney voiced, took over as Aang’s successor in the sequel work, The Legend of Korra.

[[nid:584027]]

A release date and story details have yet to be announced, and it’s unclear if the movie will take after the more mature appearances of the characters in the comics.

The original series ran from 2005 to 2008, and followed Aang on his quest to master all four elements — water, earth, fire, and air — to fulfil his destiny as the Avatar and bring peace to the world by defeating the Fire Lord, the ruling supreme of the Fire Nation.

Since its finale, the series has continued for four seasons with The Legend of Korra, and received a string of comic books and prequel novels. M. Night Shyamalan added his own spin to a live-action adaptation in 2010, but that turned out to be a disaster, prompting Netflix to give it another shot at bringing the series to the silver screen.

Things, however, aren’t looking too optimistic on that front, with co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko having stepped away from the live-action project, citing creative differences, which usually isn’t a good sign at all.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.