Albert Kim, the showrunner on Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender responded to the animated show’s original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko exiting the project.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. (L to R) Ian Ousley as Sokka, Kiawentiio as Katara, Gordon Cormier as Aang in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Back in August 2020, DiMartino announced in an open letter on his website that he was exiting the project saying, “When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.”
He later added, “I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.”
“And who knows? Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good. It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make,” he wrote.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. (L to R) Gordon Cormier as Aang, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Kiawentiio as Katara in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
Konietzko shared his exit announcement on Instagram writing, “Michael DiMartino and I recently chose to leave Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the series he and I created together in 2002. We will have no involvement in the project moving forward.”
As for why, he explained, “When Netflix brought me on board to run this series alongside Mike two years ago, they made a very public promise to support our vision. Unfortunately, there was no follow-through on that promise. Though I got to work with some great individuals, both on Netflix’s side and on our own small development team, the general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Robert Falconer/Netflix © 2023
He continued, “To be clear, this was not a simple matter of us not getting our way. Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them.”
“However, we ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series,” he asserted.
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Speaking with IGN about the upcoming Netflix series, Kim was asked about DiMartino and Konietzko’s departure.
He said, “Yeah, and Bryan and Michael were involved in the project when I first joined, so I did have a lot of conversations with them, and I worked with them on the first episode. And we talked a lot about everything from … I mean, I, as a fan, just really excited to meet with them and ask them all my personal fan questions. So I was able to dive into stuff that didn’t even make it into the show, but just sort of formed the background of it.”
“But sure, having them leave was a blow. And we had to think about whether or not the vision that we had set forward really reflects and honors the spirit of what they had created,” he continued. “And we felt like it did, so we went forward with it.”
“But it’s not to say that when they left, we said, ‘Forget everything they’ve done.’ That was never going to be the case, regardless of their involvement with the project. So I think that hopefully we honor, like I said, the spirit of the show that they originally created in the version we made,” Kim concluded.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Gordon Cormier as Aang in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
What do you make of Kim’s comments about DiMartino and Konietzko exiting the project?
