Is Avatar ready to be a modern blockbuster franchise?

This week the 20th anniversary of Avatar: The last airbender, Nickelodeon’s action fantasy anime, which then became one of the biggest shows in the network. And what could be nicer than celebrating a significant opportunity than finally revealing a new show –Seven ports, A 2D series with two years of green and participation of franchise co-creator Michael Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko. Like the previous shows, Port Will concentrate on another young avatar who comes to himself, in this case a young earthy who, after a catastrophe in which her predecessor Korra is involved, inherits a stained coat that has made people with the title suspicious.

We have known for a few years that Paramount would very much like to keep Avatar Go as a multimedia franchise. In general, the franchise never really disappeared, even when the gap between series was considerable: together with Netflix ‘separate (but ongoing) live action remake, countless comics and graphic novels have what next for Aang, Korra and your friends happened, treated. Video games of questionable quality are semi -consistent (with a more extensive on the horizon). And there were a number of YA books with prominent avatars of the past like Kyoshi and Yangchen.

But Seven ports Haves a different weight behind it than one of the first franchise projects that come from Avatar Studios. If this and the animated film focused on Aang first of three film-published, we will see whether AvatarSGOT, which is necessary to keep up with the turbulent, franchise-frequency times of our current pop culture era.

When the original Last airbender The series was premiered on February 21, 2005. There was no such thing on western television on western television. During the majority of his audience at the time, the anime fashion style and focus on action and storytelling learned itself and never really went. And like other fans before them, children of the 00s who did Avatar The franchise protected an essential part of her identity from everyone who had not “understood” it, hence the long-term bitterness about the live action film and reflexive contempt as further information about the Netflix adaptation. This urge to protect goes beyond live action companies; Long -term fans will remember how much beat Legend of Korra‘S The first two seasons (especially the second) took, some of which are due to the two -year mini series at the beginning that became somewhat larger. The last two seasons have been greatly improved and build on the quantity of the runway on earlier events on interesting (and at that time very unexpected) that can be used to work as an original exhibition.

Times have changed significantly since Korra’s show in 2014. The franchise companies have become an even greater currency in Hollywood, but the studios have not really done the best job to get out of their own way and do this franchise company what they can best do. Films have been expanded to television with mixed results, and not every franchise show is done equally – some are not made like actual television programs, and others were not really the time to find themselves correctly. Corra Had his problems, but at least it had the opportunity to grow properly; Since it is easy that projects are overwhelmed by negative reactions that were produced both real and in bad intentions, it might not have taken long. The franchise has to fight with all of this, and the opportunity to switch off a project after the project Port Or the film does it well or is effectively put aside when either slips once. If there is one thing that we have learned in the past ten years, then it is the case that nobody is inviolable and it doesn’t need much for something to be loved to lose steam and feel washed.

The original Avatar I was lucky that it was the first and only part of itself in 2005 and that it had to live in his own context. After its end, Paramount continued the franchise reactively – either for fan needs and streamers or not that the last word of the series is a sour, which could be alienated or veterans alienate or veterans. If Dimartino and Konietzko have more stories that you want to tell in this universe, you should obviously make room to do this with the employees who equally enthusiastically and loves the material. But when the series is coming back, can Paramount flexible what it has and another all-age franchise franchise company besides spongebob and other brands of childhood? That will cause more damage Avatar Legacy than any live action project ever.

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