The Big Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender Producer Interview: 'This Is a Remix, Not a Cover' - IGN
The Big Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender Producer Interview: 'This Is a Remix, Not a Cover' - IGN
IGN sits down with Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender showrunner and executive producer for a wide-ranging interview about the changes they're making, the cast, the pressures of taking on ALTA, and a lot more.
I think one of the big questions is, despite all the remixing, is the point A and the point B still the same as the original?
AK: Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, I think the state of the world and the stakes of the world are still the same. So we decided to make Aang's narrative drive a little clearer. In the first season of the animated series, he's kind of going from place to place looking for adventures. He even says, "First, we've got to go and ride the elephant koi." It's a little looser as befits a cartoon. We needed to make sure that he had that drive from the start. And so, that's a change that we made. We essentially give him this vision of what's going to happen and he says, "I have to get to the Northern Water Tribe to stop this from happening." That gives him much more narrative compulsion going forward, as opposed to, "Let's make a detour and go ride the elephant koi," that type of thing. So that's something, again, that's part of the process of going from a Nickelodeon cartoon to a Netflix serialized drama.
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I see this quote and read, " so, let's remove this character's entire arc, emotional growth, and audience appeal, and replace it with a cookie cutter bland hero." This and the news of neutering Sokka's personality tells me the writing on this is gonna be trash. This is corporate slob.
So, I'm not going to defend a show I haven't seen, but I would just like to point out that this is exactly what Peter Jackson did with Aragorn and the entire beginning of Fellowship. He had to change the events and motivations to better suit the overall story and pace.
I can imagine a live-action Aang who is still a kid but also has a clearer motivation of what to do. This person has a point with the original. Aang knows what the Fire Nation is going to do but then turns around and lists all the crazy things he wants to do first. This suits a cartoon better than a live-action show, I think. I can also imagine how they'd screw this up, too. We'll just have to see...
My gripe is that Aang ends up in an Iceberg because he was emotionally overwhelmed by the responsibility of being the Avatar and having to face a war while his entire identity and autonomy gets stripped from him, so he runs away. Running away and avoiding responsibility is his whole character defect to be overcome. But now, he has a vision, and runs up to save the day? Doesn't actually rings too congruent to me. We'll see in a few weeks. But the whole ordeal of the first season is Aang coming to terms with the reality of his identity and facing the responsibilities, and fear, associated with it.
If the show drops this emotional elements without properly addressing the void they leave behind narratively, they will lose the audience. They want both the Nickelodeon original fanbase and the GoT fanbase. I fear they will end up satisfying neither.
Valid point. We'll have to see... I want to believe!!
So, I’m not going to defend a show I haven’t seen, but I would just like to point out that this is exactly what Peter Jackson did with Aragorn and the entire beginning of Fellowship. He had to change the events and motivations to better suit the overall story and pace.
Very good point. Book and Movie Aragorn have very different arcs.
I would say that book Aragorn almost doesn't even have an arc, or he has a "flat arc", as it were.
He had a character arc, but it had already finished by the time the four Hobbits meet him in Bree.
Very true.
I'm not going to judge a book by its cover. I'll decide how it is after I see it.
Agree, but I'm not judging it by its cover. I'm making careful assessments based on the promotional material and statements from the makers of the thing itself, and based on my personal taste and previous experience.
I stay cautious. Let's wait and see.
Hard agree. It reads like he doesn't understand the character. Shortcutting the reasons Aang even ended up in the iceberg to begin with and his journey to finally accepting responsibility and not running away? That takes too long and is cartoon stuff anyway. Big red flag. But hey, at least we got the veneer right this time, right guys?
Or the showrunner is simply bad at doing interviews. Could easily just be that.
Always believe people when they tell you who they are. I learned this with Games of Thrones. “We removed the most prominent personality defining trait from this character” is not an accidental slip, or misinterpreted turn of phrase. This guy is proud enough of that decision to tell the press about it in specific detail.