For the first time in about a year there is some major concrete news coming out of Avatar Studios. The newly-created animation studio has announced three new movie spinoffs of Avatar: The Last Airbender. These movies will not only bring fans back to the Avatar world for the first time in almost a decade, they will premiere on the big screen.
Nickelodeon announced the establishment of Avatar Studios in early 2021 with plans to create new TV shows, movies and other stories in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. After about a year of radio silence, sources at Avatar Studios, Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation gave some updates to reporters from Deadline in June. They said that there are three animated movies on the way, all executive produced by series creators Bryan Koneitzko and Michael DiMartino as well as showrunner Eric Coleman.
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The studios also confirmed that veteran artist Lauren Montgomery will direct the first Avatar Studios movie, which is premiering in theaters. Nickelodeon executive Ramsey Naito said: “As original creators Mike and Bryan expand the Avatar universe with us, we’re keeping it all in the family with Lauren bringing the same kind of expert, beautiful work she did on the original series to her new directing duties on the forthcoming theatrical.”
While that’s about all we learned for certain from Deadline‘s confirmed sources, another report by Avatar News offers more details – albeit with some caveats. Sources have reportedly told Avatar News the content of these three planned movies. The first will be a prequel about Avatar Kyoshi, the second will be about Prince Zuko and the third will be set after the ending of Legend of Korra.
These descriptions aren’t hard to believe – especially the first one, since the story of Avatar Kyoshi has been greatly expanded in the recent novels by author F.C. Yee. Meanwhile, Avatar News also includes some tentative release dates for these movies, with warnings that they are not set in stone and are subject to change. The Kyoshi movie is reportedly slated for release in late 2024, followed by the Zuko movie in 2025 and the Korra movie in 2026.
Avatar Studios has not commented on these reports to confirm or deny them. Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra are both streaming now on Paramount+. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
