Avatar Studios has a lot going on as Nickelodeon's renewed investment in the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise is bigger than ever before. Not only will there be the three theatrical films first announced in June, but there will also be a new television series starring an Earth Kingdom-born Avatar, and there will be two other series that will each be released in the same year as each of the two other films. And it's well rooted in Paramount+, with each series making its home there.
That’s right, starting in 2025, there will be a new animated series and a new theatrical (also animated) film every year at least through 2027. 2025 starts it all off with the Earth Kingdom-born Avatar series. It obviously doesn't have a premiere date but is expected and reported to be before the movie. After all, there's more real estate before October 10 than there is after. This Earth Kingdom-born Avatar will be Korra's direct successor and is therefore estimated to be set in the Avatar world’s equivalent of our world’s present day. October 10 is the release date of the older Aang and friends film. Avatar News also recently revealed Dante Basco is reprising his role as Zuko for the film. 2026 and 2027 currently have both of their respective projects unconfirmed, but their series are indeed not the same as 2025.
However, the 2026 film is still set to be the Zuko-focused story that is indeed separate from the 2025 film. Subsequent seasons of either series are still possible within the plan. It’s also being reported that the 2026 series won’t be mainline. With the desire expressed by franchise creators Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino for experimentation in facets including style and audience, this could mean equivalencies drawn to Star Wars: Visions or even a Young Jedi Adventures audience aim, all sorts of possibilities. Considering the parallels drawn between the original series and the original Star Wars trilogy, it makes a lot of sense that Nickelodeon is giving their series similar treatment to what Disney is doing with that franchise. There are probably other apt non-Star Wars examples but these are just what came to mind.
In addition, as it turns out, the Kyoshi movie that was initially reported to be first does exist, however it does so as a film undated, waiting in the wings beyond the initial three-year plan. What happened was it was accidentally conflated with the 2025 series. More Avatar Studios projects are also in development, all in all, proving that Avatar Studios is a full-fledged studio and not just a label for one or two projects within Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Elsewhere, the franchise also has the live-action adaptation of the original series being made at Netflix, at which the creative differences had Bryan and Mike leave that project and form Avatar Studios in the first place in February 2021. That is expected to premiere in the upcoming year, so even if there's little overlap it'll still help to cover ground and pave the way.
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