Avatar: The Last Airbender star joins fans concerned over Netflix remake

Concerned that Netflix is going to butcher its remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans have started a petition to demand accountability.

It wasn’t long ago when fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender were excited to finally get a chance to see the legendary animated show come to the small screen as a live-action Netflix adaptation, with creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko signed on to manage everything. But after news broke that the creators had walked away from the project, excitement turned to resentment and fear.

Without the guidance of the original creators, fans are concerned about the direction Netflix could take the show, especially after a report emerged claiming that the streaming service had wanted to age up the characters, make the show grittier, and retain the option to include white actors even though its set in an East Asian and indigenous-inspired fantasy setting. All of this has resulted in a Change.org petition that has almost 18,000 signatures as of this writing.

To be fair, the report has yet to be confirmed by anyone in the know — neither DiMartino nor Konietzko revealed exactly why they left beyond vaguely hinting at creative differences — but the petition seems to be a direct response to it. “As we all know, all the characters in the series are either Asian or Inuit, an indigenous culture,” the petition reads. “We fear that the casting of the live-action will lack proper cultural representation, and we DEMAND that all the cast members are properly representing their character’s origins; for instance, the cast members for Katara and Sokka MUST be Native, not white but NATIVE. Casting WHITE people in the series will render the original series and ruin the entire ATLA live-action, as seen with the horrible ATLA movie back in 2010 by M. Night Shyamalan.”

They’re right that M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 movie adaptation of the show white-washed the characters, and got a ton of backlash for it. Really, that movie was pretty godawful all around, from the casting to the acting to the special effects and beyond:

“Next, we demand that the characters’ age is age-appropriate, as seen in the animated series,” the petition continues. “These characters are MINORS and shouldn’t be aged up to sexualize them. It is not okay to age the characters to fit the casting’s ideal image, and we DEMAND that the cast members fit their actual age in the series. ”

It’s not just fans who are concerned about the Netflix show, either. Voice actor Greg Baldwin, who played Uncle Iroh in the third season after original actor Mako Iwamatsu died, shared his thoughts on Twitter. “Wow. Just…wow,” he wrote. “Seriously…I’m gonna have to ruminate on this. I don’t know if I trust Netflix to create a decent adaptation of ATLA without the creative vision and input of its creators.”

"I worked at studios for many years. Once the ‘suits’ weigh in on a project and start pissing on it to justify their jobs…Everything goes to shit."

I’m certain Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation won’t be the same without DiMartino and Konietzko on board. Let’s hope Netflix surprises us. I’m at least willing to try it; it can’t be as bad as the movie, can it?

…can it?

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