Avatar Co-Creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino just announced that they are leaving the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Bryan states he is leaving because Netflix has not been keeping their promise of letting the creators make an Avatar in the same spirit of the original show. He emphasizes that he is happy to accept other’s ideas as a collaborative person but “the general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment”.
Mike released an open letter on his site that goes into further detail about how he came to his decision. He speaks about how he had to look inward and “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.”
This comes as a massive disappointment to fans that fear a repeat of the M. Night Shyamalan debacle. M. Night changed the original so much that the movie was unrecognizable to the fans. Mike even mentions that this final product will not be what he and Bryan had envisioned.
Bryan says that there are still many talented people attached to the project and hopes they can right the ship. He will continue to work in the world of Avatar through other projects. Avatar comics are wildly popular and canon.
Here at Geek Freaks, we are very anxious for this new series and hope this is a wake-up call to Netflix. This series is very special to a wide audience and deserves to be treated with care.
Below is Bryan’s full statement:
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