Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered over 15 years ago on Nickelodeon, but you wouldn’t know it based on the number of people still excited about the series. Much of that can be chocked up to the show recently becoming available on Netflix, where it’s been found by a whole new generation of fans. With its lovable cast of characters, perfectly paced run, and imaginative East Asian-inspired world, it couldn’t have happened to a better show.
But in the streaming wars, nothing lasts for long. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount+ executive Brian Robbins revealed that the show will eventually be making its way over to that streaming service, although he didn’t put a date on it. “And it’s not like this is some secret that we’re pulling the wool over anybody else’s eyes on other services,” Robbins said.
“They’re happy to have the content and they understand the strategy. We’re very upfront about it.”
That probably also means that The Legend of Korra, a sequel to The Last Airbender, will be leaving Netflix for Paramount+ sooner or later as well. (As for M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, I’m not sure anybody cares where it ends up.)
Streaming services fight over Avatar: The Last Airbender
This news comes at a time when every streaming service is trying to get a leg up on the others, often through the creation of mega-franchises. Nickelodeon has brought on original Last Airbender creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino to manage Avatar Studios, which will move forward with a whole range of new Avatar projects. “We are now on our way to a full-fledged franchise strategy, creating films and spinoffs out of Avatar,” Robbins said.
Both Nickelodeon and Paramount are owned by ViacomCBS, so these new projects will likely end up on Paramount+ when they come out. Whether they’ll be the big draw Robbins and company hope they’ll be is unclear as of yet.
And on top of all of this, Netflix is making a live-action version of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender TV show, although we haven’t heard anything about it in a while. The streaming wars are gonna get bloody.
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h/t ComicBook.com