Avatar: The Last Airbender fans celebrate animated film announcement: ‘Best news of the year’

Newly formed Avatar Studios will produce new animated series and films based on popular series

Fans of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series are celebrating news that the show is being given an animated film.

On Wednesday (24 February), it was announced that an animated theatrical-release movie based on the popular series is scheduled to start production later this year.

It will be the first project produced as part of the newly launched Avatar Studios, which is owned by Nickelodeon and will include original content based on Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra.

The studio will be led by the series’s original creator Michael DiMartino as well as Bryan Konietzko, who last year quit a proposed live-action version of the series for Netflix. He said that the project was not what they “envisioned or intended to make”.

“So I’ll be seeing more animated series and movies based on Avatar: The Last Airbender?! OMGJDSJDJS I CAN’T WAIT,” one fan commented.

“I’M JUST NOW LEARNING THAT THERE IS A NEW ANIMATED AVATAR MOVIE COMING OUT?! AND A WHOLE STUDIO DEDICATED TO MAKING AVATAR CONTENT?!?” another wrote. 

“This is honestly some of the best news of the year. Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are literally my two favourite shows ever made. They have had such a big impact on my life. I can’t wait to see what they come up with,” one tweet read.

One fan tweeted: “New Avatar movie. Animated. As it should be!”

In 2010, a live-action film directed by M Night Shyamalan and based on the animated series was released to poor reception from fans and critics. It has a rating of five per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

But despite the previous movie being poorly received, fans seemed optimistic that an animated film could be the way forward.

“An Avatar movie with the right budget and treatment could be amazing though,” one fan commented. “I really hope this pans out well. I love the series a lot.”

Avatar: The Last Airbender originally aired from 2005 to 2008 and followed a young monk named Aang as he learns to master the four elements and save the world from the Fire Nation.