New ’Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Movie Confirmed for 2025 – All Potential Projects Explained
CinemaCon 2023 presented us with many amazing projects from various filming studios and companies, everything from the first screenings of upcoming movies to announcements that got us really excited. One of them is Paramount, who announced some cool projects, but probably the biggest news from the studio is the announcement that a new Avatar: The Last Airbender movie will be released in 2025. Now, we know there have been talks of new Avatar projects for years, but it seems that this particular animated movie will kickstart the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe that the creators have planned since the Avatar Studios’ establishment in February of 2021.
Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konieztko, also known to the fans as Bryke, mentioned multiple times in their interviews how they are planning new Avatar content to develop a whole Avatar Airbender Universe, which might include the graphic novels and books released during and after the conclusion of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra series, and some new stories that we haven’t seen before. This article will recap all we know about DiMartino and Konietzko’s plans and speculate on future projects after the Avatar movie in 2025.
These are all Avatar projects either confirmed or rumored to be in development:
- Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action Netflix series – 2023
- Avatar animated movie – in development – 2025
- New Avatar series – in development – 2025 or 2026
- Zuko movie – in development – 2026+
- Avatar Kyoshi movie – in development – 2026+
All confirmed Avatar projects
Avatar: The Last Airbender Netflix series – 2023
The first confirmed Avatar project was announced all the way in 2018, and since then has been through a lot of changes. Netflix decided to develop a live-action series based on the original animated series from 2005. The original creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Michael DiMartino, and Bryan Konietzko have been attached to the project from the beginning. However, on August 12, 2020, Michael DiMartino posted an open letter on his blog announcing he was leaving the production with Konietzko. The reasoning behind their leaving was creative differences between Netflix and the original creators, and they thought it was best to move on from the live-action series.
Soon after, Nickelodeon launched Avatar Studios and appointed DiMartino and Koinetzko as the co-chief creative officers, with the vision of creating and releasing more Avatar projects in the future. Despite the setback in development, Netflix continued without Bryke and even wrapped up the series filming recently in Vancouver.
The show is really expensive and allegedly costs Netflix $15m per episode. Hopefully, this live-action series won’t be bad as the M. Night Shyamalan movie from 2010, when the project massively flopped commercially and critically, making it one of the, if not the worst, adapted movies of all time.
Last fall, we reported the full cast and crew for the Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action show with diverse actors and Albert Kim as the series director. The show will be released in late 2023, and we will update you with more news about the project.
Avatar animated movie – 2025
This project really excites me as a fan of the Avatar animated franchise. At CinemaCon 2023, Paramount showcased the first look of the upcoming Avatar movie, which will take place approximately ten years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. The photo represented the adult Gaang, which isn’t that much different than the fan art we saw over the years. The Legend of Korra series featured some flashbacks of adult Gaang with surviving members of the original Team Avatar living during Korra’s cycle, including Toph, Katara, and Zuko.
Now, we don’t know the show’s synopsis nor where the movie will be set beside the main characters, but the official Instagram page of Avatar: The Last Airbender released an official announcement and date movie’s premiere, which will happen in October of 2025. This is really exciting since the original creators are going back to animation and animated Avatar projects, which Bryan Konietzko discussed in an interview posted on the official YouTube page of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Konietzko revealed that he and DiMartino are working on developing new stories and expanding the Avatar Universe, which will be developed simultaneously with the animated Gaang movie. Moreover, the creators also hinted at the development of the animation, with Konietzko highlighting the development of animated projects in the last few years, which leads us to expect we will see the usual Avatar animation with 3D enhancements. Avatar Animated Universe seems to be going the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse route, revolutionizing how the animation is utilized.
Nevertheless, this movie catalyzes Avatar Universe expansion; frankly, we cannot wait for 2025.
New Avatar series – in development – 2025 or 2026
This project is definitely in development since DiMartino and Konietzko have hinted at the new Avatar series for years. It did help that both creators and Nickelodeon confirmed that there would be three new projects in development, including the one with the new Avatar. Of course, this character will come after Avatar Korra, whom we saw after Avatar Aang, meaning that the cycle of Avatar will continue.
Moreover, with the cycle continuing, we will get an earthbending Avatar after air and water. Besides Avatar Kyoshi, we never saw the earthbending Avatar in action, and it will be interesting to see how Bryke will develop their new character. The exact date of release is not yet confirmed, but DiMartino and Konietzko hinted at the new Avatar series being released shortly after the Gaang animated movie in 2025.
So if everything ends up well, we will see two big Avatar projects in the same year, which we never experienced. Also, seeing the new Avatar conversing with the past Avatar Korra (who lost her bond with past Avatars in her series) will be really interesting to see, and who knows – maybe we will see a new Avatar with the technology we have today. There are a lot of possibilities, and we are really excited.
All potential Avatar projects
Zuko animated movie
DiMartino and Konietzko also mentioned that we would get the long-awaited standalone Zuko project. One of the fan-favorite characters in the Avatar universe has been one of the most interesting characters to date. His complex characterization and journey in the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series made his character part of the popular culture and an example of how to create problematic but great layered characters in cartoons.
We did get Zuko content in the form of the graphic novels and books released after the original animated series ended, but in the standalone movie, we might find out what happened to Mai, his journey as a Fire Lord in the aftermath of his father’s tyranny, and his story with his Uncle Iroh. Prince Zuko is one of the few characters we see alive in The Legend of Korra series; where he is a retired Fire Lord and is advising his daughter, the current leader of Fire Nation, Izumi, on political matters. We saw Zuko, young and old, and besides the Gaang movie, we might see Zuko in a totally different state. This project will probably be released two to three years later after the Gaang movie in 2025.
Avatar Kyoshi movie
Finally, the last partially confirmed project, Avatar Studios, with DiMartino and Konietzko in charge, will be the standalone animated movie about Avatar Kyoshi. We met Kyoshi through Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series and really good Kyoshi novels, which were released in the last few years. Avatar Kyoshi is one of the most interesting Avatars we have seen in the Avatar Universe, and besides her incredible tenure as the Avatar that has been over 200 years long, we saw many personal aspects of her life, which included her beginnings as a woman and Avatar, but also her relationship with the firebender Rangi.
Her novels are an amazing read, and knowing that DiMartino and Koinetzko are developing this amazing project is so exciting to see. Now, we will find out more details about this project in the future, but we will get this movie at least two years after the Zuko movie. The development takes a really long time, and knowing that Avatar: The Last Airbender series took four years to develop makes us hopeful that these projects will be as good as, if not better, projects than the original series from 2005.
Since Bryke are planning many projects to expand the Avatar Universe, we say there might be more Avatar Korra content for her fans since her series and storyline are also extremely interesting. Nevertheless, these projects are yet to be fully announced and confirmed, and the closer we get to 2025, we will have information about the Avatar Universe.