Avatar: The Last Airbender, an epic animated fantasy series set in a world inspired by East Asian cultures, aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon back in the 2000s, and people have loved it ever since. The show has the perfect blend of heart, humor, drama and action, and now Netflix is turning it into a live-action series.
I hope I don’t jinx it, but the trailer looks really good, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Michaela Jill Murphy, the voice actor who played fan-favorite character Toph Beifong in the original series, reacted to the trailer on her YouTube channel, and she seems very psyched. There are many exclamations of “oh wow” and “oh my god, so good” throughout. Take a look:
“I’m a little emotional,” Murphy says when the trailer is over. And this is just a trailer for the first season; Toph doesn’t appear until the second. Murphy predicts she’ll be a “mess” when that happens.
Original Avatar: The Last Airbender actor compares new show to M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation
This isn’t the first time Avatar: The Last Airbender has been adapted into live-action. In 2010, director M. Night Shyamalan made a live-action movie that the fan community has mostly decided to forget, because it is famously bad. “Oh it looks so much better,” Murphy says at one point during her video. She doesn’t mention Shyamalan’s movie by name, but I think we all know what she’s talking about.
“The firebending looks great,” Murphy said. “The bending in general has taken many steps in the right direction from maybe previous live-action examples. Gosh, it’s so cool to see it feel so tangible. The score is already beautiful. We all love the music.”
Netflix’s new version of Avatar: The Last Airbender will premiere on February 22, 2024. “The fact that it’s only three months away is nuts,” Murphy said. “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited!”
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