With Netflix releasing the first full trailer for the upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, IGN sat down with executive producer and showrunner Albert Kim and executive producer, director, and VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani to learn more about their highly-anticipated adaptation. The trailer shows many iconic images of Aang, Zuko, Appa and the rest that fans will recognize from the beloved animated series, but it also includes several key changes, including brand new scenes of major moments we never got to see in the original.
Before you hear what Kim and Raisani had to say, be sure to check out the action-packed trailer full of fantastical creatures, colorful settings, and lots and lots of bending.
Experience this trailer breakdown how you want to. You can watch it as a video in the player above, flip through the slideshow below, or keep scrolling to read it as an article.
Kim: We open here with a shot of the Fire Nation fleet, and at the same time, we're hearing the voiceover from Monk Gyatso talking about the threat of the Fire Nation and how they're set out to conquer the world. And Gyatso is a character that if you're a fan of the show, you're very familiar with. But even if you're not, you should be able to recognize that he's authoritative and warm and scholarly. And fortunately, we had an amazing actor, Lim Kay Siu, who's from Singapore, and he plays Gyatso and he represents all of those things. I think people are really going to love him and he's the one who actually sets up the stakes for this world.
Raisani: When we come to a setting like this, this burnt forest, it really shows the scope and scale of this show, and it really is a road show. And we try to go to lots of different locations, whether they be digital or practical places to show the expanse of this world.
Kim: One of the things I always loved about the original series was it had a very strong eco message. And you see that and fans will recognize what episode this comes from, but as you're flying over this burnt forest, that's one of the messages that we wanted to convey as well.
Raisani: You'll see a little glimpse of Appa here, but Appa's a real core character and part of this team as well. And you'll see through the sounds that Appa makes, through the movements that Appa makes, really try to bring this digital character to life as much as any of the live action characters.
Kim: Appa is much more than just a mode of transportation for the team. He is the team's constant companion and their loyal friend. And we know that and the fans know that and we work really hard to make sure that that's how he came across.
Kim: This is the attack on the Southern Air Temple by the Firebenders, and it's really the event that kicks off this whole epic journey. Now, what's interesting is this is a scene that was never seen in the original series. In other interviews, I've talked a lot about how one of the reasons for doing this adaptation is to fill in the gaps. And this, to me, was one of the big gaps in the original series. And there's a good reason why they didn't do it. But for us, I felt it was very important that we needed to see the event, the genocide of the Air Nomads, and this is the event that the Fire Nation attacked and everything changed. And so we get to portray that and show exactly the horrors that start here and then have lasting repercussions for the next century of the world.
Raisani: And like Albert was saying earlier about adapting something from an animated series into a live action show, we're really setting a different tone while we're trying to maintain the feeling and the emotion of the original series. This is something that wasn't in there that we want in our show because it is a different tone than the original series while we're trying to honor everything that was laid before us.
Kim: That's right. It's really important to see because it really does set the stakes for the entire world and for the entire story that we're telling this season.
Kim: Here we're seeing Fire Lord Sozin, the person who actually launched the campaign and set the world on the course that we find it in. And again, this is a scene that was never seen in the original series, but for us, in order to convey the stakes and exactly what this war is all about, we felt like we needed to see that. So we get to see Sozin here attacking Monk Gyatso. And it's a very important moment in the story. It kicks off the entire journey. And it was important to us that we started off our whole show with that.
Raisani: And I think what's helpful, especially for people that aren't familiar with the show, is just helping them understand the timeline and what's occurred and who Sozin is, as opposed to being a name and an idea. It's actually a person that we dramatize on camera.
Kim: Here we're seeing the iceberg, and this is the iceberg that Katara and Sokka discover Aang in. This is an iconic scene from the original series. In fact, the first episode of the animated series is called “The Boy in the Iceberg.” And so we did our best to recreate some of the most familiar images from the series like the beam of light that shoots into the sky, or right afterwards when you see Aang at the edge of the crater with his arrow glowing. Those are images that I think every diehard Avatar fan knows really well. And so we thought it was really important that we do our best to recreate those images.
Raisani: Yeah, and really recreating them down to some of the smaller details even where there's this double explosion of the ball as it bursts in the animated series. And we really tried to emulate that in a way that works for live action, but feels grounded in reality.
Kim: This is where Katara and Sokka first discover Aang and their first glimpse of the Avatar. It's an event that they're going to realize later, not only changes their lives, but will change the course of the world. Right now, it's just a mysterious phenomenon that's happened, and we did our best to try and recreate the mood and look that they did in the original series. Later on, obviously, both Katara and Sokka are going to realize he's much more than just some strange kid frozen in an iceberg. He is the Avatar, the hope for the world.
Kim: Here's our look at Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai. Now, I got to tell you, he looks exactly as I'd hoped he would look. Aside from the fact that Daniel Dae Kim has ridiculously perfect features, when you put him in that costume and give him that hair and that makeup, he looks like a living anime character. So this is just incredible to see the transformation on screen.
Raisani: Here we have our ostrich horses, one of many creatures in our universe, a hybrid creature, which for those of you who are not fans of the original series, almost all of the creatures in the series are hybrid creatures. This is our hybrid between an ostrich and a horse. Practically on set, there were stunt drivers underneath these actors who were riding on top of them. Digitally, we created the creature in its entirety.
Kim: Here we see Aang and Katara and Sokka returning to the Southern Air Temple 100 years after the Fire Nation attack. And they're just now witnessing the devastation that occurred and Aang is seeing his home and what's become of it. And this is when the shock of the war really hits him. And it carries a lot of weight for him, not just because this is his home and this is where he used to live and it's all gone. But he's starting to realize that all of this was a result of him not fulfilling his responsibilities as the Avatar. And that's the burden that he carries with basically throughout the rest of the series. This is where he's starting to realize that.
Raisani: With Sokka and Katara, this is the first time they're really traveling outside of their home of Wolf Cove, and they're coming into this whole new world with all of these problems that they didn't realize exist and trying to find their place within this journey with Aang.
Kim: Katara is the character who really recognizes Aang for who he is, and that is a symbol of hope. And the return of the Avatar for her means that hope has returned to a world that essentially has lost hope for the last 100 years. She's the first one to see that. And over the course of the season, we're going to see that message of hope spread throughout the world. And so she's kind of the harbinger of the Avatar and recognizes what she says here is that he's a beacon of hope.
Raisani: The juxtaposition of what Katara's POV is and what Sokka's POV is, and them clashing on like, do we go forward? Do we go back? It's a really interesting dynamic that plays earlier in the season than later in the season, but it's a really important part of who they are as brother and sister and their journey over the course of the season in coming together to support Aang and what he's trying to do.
Kim: That's what was really great about Sokka and Katara because they do have that brother-sister dynamic, which automatically comes with its own tensions and stuff, but they do have very different viewpoints on the world. Sokka is very much a practical realist. He wants to protect his family, protect his community, find the next meal. That's what his priorities are. Katara is much more optimistic. She wants to see how is it that we're going to be able to save this world? How can we change things for the better? And once she sees and meets Aang, she realizes he's going to be the path to that. And so it's the conflict of those two ideas that really sets out the course of the season.
Kim: This is our first glimpse at Kyoshi Island. This is a location that fans of the original will recognize immediately. If you haven't seen the show, it should become clear that it's very much a community that's Japanese-inspired. And that's really important because all of the locations and influences in this world are based on real world Asian indigenous cultures. And that's something that really sets us apart from other epic fantasies.
Kim: Aang's crashing into the statue here, and this is a direct echo to a famous gag that plays during the title sequence of the animated series. And it's important for us to do this because despite everything, Aang is just a goofy kid and that's part of his character, and we wanted to make sure that we showed that. And even after the sequence, you hear a funny joke from Sokka, that's part of his character, his sarcasm, his humor. And it was really important to us that we landed all the humor moments, as well as the big epic action beats.
Raisani: It was really important to put this into the trailer so fans know we have that in our minds, we are making that show, and here it is.
Kim: I can already see the side-by-side comparisons between this and the animated version of it.
Kim: Here's our first glimpse at Uncle Iroh and he's here in Zuko's quarters. Zuko and Iroh is one of the most important dynamics in this show. And Zuko is arguably the most popular character from the original series. And so this story is as much about his journey as anyone's. In general, we actually spend a lot more time with the Fire Nation and the Fire Nation characters in our first season than they did in the original animated series. That was a very conscious choice. I felt it was important that we needed to balance out the story that way. So you end up seeing a lot more of Fire Lord Ozai and Princess Azula than you did in the first season of the animated show.
Kim: Zuko's journey is as important as any characters on the show. And here, we hear him talking about what his goal is, which is he has to hunt down and find the Avatar, and that's the way he's going to return home. So hearing him voice that is really important because it sets up his mission, which is separate from that of Katara and Sokka and Aang's, and that's what puts them on a collision course.
Raisani: Here we have a look at some of Iroh's firebending. We really tried to differentiate the bending as much as we could while making it feel like a unified event, as in all of our firebending should look like firebending, but Iroh's looks slightly different than Zuko's, which looks slightly different than Ozai's, which looks different than Azula's. And we also try to differentiate them with sound design. So if you listen really closely to when Iroh bends, you'll hear almost a dragon sound underneath all of that bending.
Kim: We're seeing one of the most important events in the course of the show, which is the Agni Kai between Prince Zuko and his father, Fire Lord Ozai. This is arguably the defining moment of Zuko's life is when he goes up against his father and ends up gravely wounded. This is how he gets his trademark scar on his eye. Again, this is a scene that was not seen in the original series. It was kind of obliquely shown, but we decided this was something that was very important for us to see. So we actually choreographed this whole fight, shot it. You see the whole thing and it makes you understand a lot more about Zuko's character when you see it in real life. And I got to say, the performances on that day from everyone involved were incredible. Daniel's and [Zuko actor Dallas James Liu’s] and [Uncle Iroh actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s], they were all involved in this scene and it really will leave a lasting mark, figuratively and literally on Zuko. It's something that I think fans are really going to dig.
Raisani: This is in episode six, it really goes to the core of Zuko's story and Zuko's journey, which I love over the course of this season. He's banished. What did his father really want? Does he want him to succeed and find the Avatar and come back? Is he using him against his sister? What is really required of him or desired of him by his father? And then is he going to do that or is he going to do what he thinks is right? And I love the whole story throughout the season for Zuko.
Kim: Again, this is an example of a sequence and a story that we had to be careful that we looked at it through two lenses. One from that of a die-hard fan who knows this story so well and has certain expectations for how it should play out, but at the same time, for someone who doesn't know the story, this is a very important origin story for Zuko. So it had to make sense for them. You had to lay out all of the emotional beats and use it to explain Zuko's character. And so in filming the whole sequence, we wanted to keep both of those audiences in mind.
Kim: Here, we're seeing Aang talking to his best friend, Appa. And like we were saying earlier, Appa is much more than just another creature. He is a character as much as any of the human ones. The relationship between Aang and Appa is kind of emblematic of the relationship fans have with Appa. They love him. And we needed to make sure that we got him right along with Momo and all the other creatures that we see in the trailer. I think once fans see the level of attention and detail and care that went into creating all of the creatures, they'll understand that it was as important to us to get it right as it is to them.
Raisani: This scene is a great example of that. And [Aang actor Gordon Comier’s] performance here is really, really strong. He really connected with Appa. We had a lot of conversations about Aang and Appa with Gordon to really help him understand, yes, you're looking at this green thing that isn't Appa, but we need to pull that emotion out that you're going to be connecting to when we're finished with the visual effects on the show.
Kim: On the day, Gordon was acting against the giant blue mask, and that was moving up and down in front of him. So he had to use his imagination as to what Appa was going to look like. He didn't see this finished version of it. So it was a very difficult acting challenge for him. But as you'll see, it's incredible in the moment.
Raisani: Here's Momo, one of our many creatures in the show. He is a digital creature. We have a little live action puppet that we put on set so everybody knows what we're doing. But again, Ian, Sokka here just did a really good job of connecting with this creature that didn't exist and really bringing the humor to the show. And that's one of the things we didn't want to lose, was Sokka not just being the butt of every joke, but having a lot of humor associated with Sokka. And Ian really did a great job of bringing that performance to the show.
Kim: It was really important to us that despite the burden that all of these characters are facing and the fact that the fate of the world rests in their hands, they are just kids. Aang is a goofy 12-year-old and Katara and Sokka aren't much older. We wanted to make sure that we conveyed that because that's a really important part of not just their characters, but of the story. If they are going to be these harbingers of hope, as we said, they needed to express that through their childlike sense of optimism. And so that's what we end up seeing in scenes and sequences like this.
Raisani: Here, we have our introduction of June and Nyla. Super, super fun creature to design. Arden Cho did amazing work as June. It's just a really fun series of beats with her in the show that I think fans who know the series are really going to love her adaptation of that character. It was something that was really fun to get to work on in terms of bringing this creature to life.
Kim: I’ve got to say, one of the joys of working on this show is being able to assemble this kind of murderer's row of Asian acting talent because you have Arden Cho, you'll see Tamlyn Tomita in this trailer. You see Ken Leung. All actors who I've admired for so long, and being able to assemble them into one place was really a dream come true. One of the reasons for doing this show is establishing a new benchmark in representation. And I truly do believe that. Bringing together actors of this caliber into a fantasy epic like this one, a story that they haven't been able to do in the past, was really gratifying and it really justified why we're doing the show in the first place.
Kim: We're talking about the importance of creatures in this world, so here is a glimpse of the Hei Bai, one of the most iconic creatures from the original series. And along with Nyla the shirshu, and Appa, and Momo, all of these are ones that required a level of attention to detail that was above and beyond. But at the same time, we had to translate it from basically 2D to 3D. That's literally what we had to do. And so there's a lot of things that we had to consider, the texture of the Hei Bai's skin, the colors involved, what his teeth were like, the musculature, the skeleton, all of that kind of stuff that went into creating a three-dimensional character out of something that had only been two-dimensional before.
Kim: For instance, I can't tell you how many discussions we had about what's the nature of the Hei Bai's hide. Is it pebbly, is it fur, is it leathery, is he more of a lizard creature? And those are all just some of the decisions that went into making this creature come to life. But I think when fans see the finished product, they'll realize even if they have quibbles about certain details of the character or of the creature, they'll say, "Oh, yeah, that is the Hei Bai. That is exactly what it should be."
Kim: This is a shot of Kyoshi Village, which is very much inspired by Japanese communities. One of the hallmarks of this story is that everything in it is based on or inspired by something from the Asian or indigenous worlds. That is something that is different. Most of the epic fantasies that you see that are out there often are rooted in Western European traditions and lore. This is the first story of its kind and of this scale that's really more centered in the Asian world. So it was great to be able to create sets like this and bring this world to life to show everybody exactly what that would mean.
Raisani: This village is really a testament to our production designer, Michael Wylie. You look at an image like this and there's no digital extension in this. This is a full practical build, just a full street of this real village, which was amazing to see.
Kim: Here's our first glimpse at the city of Omashu. Now, somewhere like Kyoshi Village could actually exist in the real world, but Omashu is a place and a location that could only exist in a fantasy like this. So that meant building it all from scratch. And Jabbar directed this episode. So we had so many conversations about everything from the color of the rooftops, to the mechanics of the delivery system, to every square inch of this city. And hopefully, this is one of those places where even if you're a non-fan, you'll look at the Omashu and say, "Wow, that's somewhere I want to go to. That's a place I want to visit."
One of the hallmarks of Avatar as a story was not just the incredible creatures involved but the incredible locations. That's one of the challenges of bringing the story to life because the animated series does go through so many incredible places, whether it's the deserts or the polar ice caps or the forest or places like Omashu, which can only exist in your imagination. And so one of the joys of doing this story was bringing places like this to life.
Raisani: Here’s Aang and Teo are going from point A to point B, which they could have done by flying straight up. But we made this sequence that was fun and engaging and really exciting to watch. With this sequence in particular, I think we called it “the joy of flight.” One of the things we talked about was in the animated series, there are parts that are just fun and they don't have to be in the show, but if they're not on the show, the show isn't as fun. And once again, it does show you that Aang is just a kid. He likes having fun, he loves things like this, he loves flying on his glider, and we've got to be able to show that side of his personality throughout the series.
Kim: Here we see Ken Leung as Commander Zhao. He is one of the main villains of the first season, and he is the primary antagonist for our heroes. This is him in Kyoshi Village, attacking Kyoshi Village. This is also based on a very famous episode from the animated series. And Ken had a way of bringing Zhao to life that was incredible to see because he brought not only the humanity of the character, which sometimes I got to say might've been a little lacking in the animated show, but he also, you could see his ambition throughout the whole thing. And you could see throughout the course of the season how his ego starts to swell as he gets more and more power and he gets closer and closer to his goal of capturing the Avatar. It was incredible to see him go through that transformation over the course of the season.
This sequence is part of a broader sequence where he and his men attack Kyoshi Village, and it's the first time that we get to see benders fighting against non-benders. One of the questions people tend to ask is, in a world full of people who can bend the elements, which seems like an incredible power, what role is there for non-benders in that world? And one of the things that we are able to see in this sequence is that the Kyoshi Warriors, who are not benders, can do much more than just hold their own against the firebenders. They are so skilled at combat and know exactly what to do, and you realize they've developed a system of combat against benders that puts them on an even playing field. Suki is the character who voices a lot of this in the episode. She'll talk a lot about how when you're not a bender, you have to be better than the benders. And so that's what we see in this fight sequence.
Raisani: This episode has a really beautiful journey between Sokka and Suki, and they're finding commonality and not being benders and what it means within this world, as Albert was saying.
Kim: Here we're seeing the Blue Spirit, another very iconic character from the original series. One of the challenges of adapting an animated series that's done as well as Avatar: The Last Airbender is they do some things that are so incredibly epic, that translating to the live action poses a mountain of challenges, both logistical and financial. And so in their Blue Spirit episode, it's incredible, as any fan will tell you. So we had to figure out how to translate that to live action without going beat for beat exactly what they did, but conveying the important points. And in the Blue Spirit sequence here, one of the most important character points is, this is when Aang and the Blue Spirit team up together. They had previously been, they thought antagonists, but then they have to work together to fight off the firebenders and escape from prison. And this is where we see that sequence.
Raisani: Roseanne [Liang] who directed this sequence along with our stunt team, just came up with a brilliant series of events that really keep you on the edge of your seat. It's one of my favorite sequences, fight sequences in the entire series.
Kim: Here, we start a sequence where we see short clips of various fight scenes and examples of different kinds of bending. Now, bending was something we thought about long and hard about how we were going to show it. Each of the bending disciplines is different from the other. First off, they're based on different martial arts styles. Secondly, they obviously involve different kinds of elements, and so being able to show that effectively meant different forms of VFX and different forms of stunt work. So earthbending is going to move and feel differently than airbending or firebending or waterbending.
For someone who is not so attuned to these differences, it may just look like some great action sequences, which is fine. But for the fans and the scholars of Avatar out there, if you pay attention, you'll notice the different martial arts styles that are involved. You'll notice the different kinds of VFX that's involved. You'll see that the way an earthbender moves is different from the way an airbender moves. All of that is something we discuss very carefully and coordinate between our different stunt teams and our VFX teams and our actors and performers before filming any of this.
Raisani: It was really complicated in a way that I think maybe I even underestimated the first time we got into it. You really have to have your performers, whether they be an actor or a stunt performer, learning these like a dance. And even if it's one simple move, the way that that move is done is really important and it helps to differentiate it between earthbending and waterbending. They're not subtle differences and they're really specific in how they need to be performed.
Kim: One of the things all the actors who had to perform bending went through was very extensive training before they shot their scenes. Our core cast went through about a six-week boot camp where they learned martial arts and learned the different bending techniques, even if it wasn't their own technique, they had to learn all four. And so guest stars who came in, like Utkarsh Ambudkar here who's playing King Bumi, he went through some very intensive training, which he will tell you left him sore for days. He was in a lot of ice baths, but it paid off in the end because he became a skilled earthbender. And you'll see that in the performance here.
Raisani: It was really important to show Team Avatar all working together and all doing their part, and we couldn't have that without Sokka and his boomerang. So it was really important thing that we wanted to make sure we had in the show, and particularly in this sequence where they're starting to work together as Team Avatar.
Kim: It's also one of the things you realize when adapting a show like Avatar, that it's not just about the costumes and the hair and the makeup and the performers. It's about the props. There are so many props that are iconic to the show and you have to get them all right, whether it's Sokka's boomerang or Katara's water skin, any of these, or Aang's staff. All of those things are things that we worked very closely with Nevin Swain, our property master, to work on to make sure that we got it right, that felt faithful to the original, but also grounded to the real world because if Aang's staff is also a glider, how thick should it be? These are all these questions that we had to ask ourselves.
Kim: Here, we see Aang going into the Avatar State, which in the world of Avatar, is the ultimate power. And so we treated it very seriously. In fact, we actually don't see Aang going into the Avatar State as much in our first season as they did in the animated series because we wanted to make sure that it felt very special. And we wanted to make it very clear that Aang could only access that state in specific set of circumstances. We actually tweaked the rules a little bit from the original series as to when and how he can access that state. But that's part of doing an adaptation like this. There are certain things that we are going to modify, we're going to change, and hopefully, fans will see that it's all for the good of the story as a whole and in dimensionalizing the story and bringing it from one medium to the other.
