Avatar: The Last Airbender's New Trailer Changes Things Only Diehard Fans Noticed
Another trailer for Netflix's live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" adaptation has arrived, revealing new versions of familiar characters, stunning fantasy vistas, bending battles, and a few key changes to the source material. The trailer marks the one-month countdown to the new series' release on February 22. As the excitement builds, we continue to learn more about what exactly this new version of the beloved Nickelodeon animated series will look like.
Before we get to the changes, it's worth reviewing some familiar moments you may have missed in the new "Avatar" trailer. Characters like June the bounty hunter (Arden Cho), rebel leader Jet (Sebastian Amoruso), and the kooky King Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) all appear in motion for the first time, and they all look great. We get glimpses at June's shirshu — the giant creature she rides — the dark version of the forest spirit Hei Bai. Fans of the Blue Spirit will be happy to see a few seconds of him battling side-by-side with Aang at a Fire Nation fortress, and there's even a shot of Aang flying with Teo (Lucian-River Chauhan) at the Northern Air Temple.
In addition to all of these reveals, the trailer gives more time and dialogue to the core characters, providing a better look at Aang (Gordon Cormier), Katara (Kiawentiio), Sokka (Ian Ousley), and Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu). The comedy of the original series is more present than in the last trailer, and overall, it's a strong showing of what's to come. There are some key differences from the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender," however, which diehard fans will surely pick up on.
Zhao attacks Kyoshi Island, not Prince Zuko
"The Warriors of Kyoshi" is one of the most iconic episodes of the original "Avatar" series, both because it introduces key players like Suki and the titular Avatar Kyoshi, but also because it's the first real look we get at the Earth Kingdom and the destruction wrought upon it by the Fire Nation. It's a story where Aang learns that his mere presence in a place can be dangerous, and it ends with a climactic battle where Prince Zuko's forces battle Aang, Katara, Sokka, and the Kyoshi Warriors.
In the new trailer, it appears that this confrontation has been changed. It's now Admiral Zhao (Ken Leung) who leads an attack on the village instead of Zuko. Or at least, that's what seems to be happening. It's possible that the Zhao scene occurs later, and that he's simply tracing the Avatar's steps after the battle with Zuko has already taken place. But this seems unlikely, both because that would still be a new scene and because the trailer shows the fight breaking out right after Zhao appears.
This is a pretty small change, all things considered, but it's still interesting. Perhaps the live-action "Avatar" is trying to put fewer war crimes on Zuko's hands to make his ultimate redemption arc a bit easier to swallow (though that's never been a complaint before). Or maybe some of Zhao's other big animated moments have been cut, so it made sense to give him a big battle early on. Time will tell.
Azula the bow-and-arrow heiress
Princess Azula (Momona Tamada) only appears briefly in the new "Avatar: The Last Airbender" trailer, but it's an especially interesting shot. In it, Zuko's sister is shown drawing and firing a bow — a weapon she never uses in the original animated series. This could just be a minor addition to her character, but there's reason to suspect it might have larger character implications.
A key aspect of Azula's character in the original "Avatar" is her prodigious skill as a firebender. Her iconic blue fire is a reflection of her immense power, and her mastery over lightning at such a young age is exceedingly rare. In flashbacks of the animated series, she even mocks Zuko for using regular weapons to compensate for his own lack of natural firebending strength. "You waste all your time playing with knives," Azula sneers in one particular childhood memory. "You're not even good."
We do see her training in combat in the original show, but it's always with firebending. She only uses a physical weapon once in the original series — a throwing knife tossed as a treacherous trick during the eclipse that briefly robs her of her firebending. Given all of this history, the choice to show her only using a bow in the new trailer is curious. It's also worth noting, however, that Azula doesn't appear in the original season unto the final shot of Season 1. It's possible that all of her scenes in the live-action adaptation will be new, which could explain the change in martial training.
Is that Fire Lord Sozin fighting Monk Gyatso?
The first teaser trailer for Netflix's live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" teased a massive battle between the airbenders of the Southern Air Temple and an army of firebenders during Sozin's Comet. This fight is referenced in the animated series, and we see the aftermath early on. However, this is the first time that the battle itself will be shown in motion.
The new trailer adds another scene to the Air Temple sequence, which shows an elderly, armored firebender battling an Air Nomad inside one of the temple's buildings. It's impossible to say for sure, but this appears to be Fire Lord Sozin (Hiro Kanagawa) dueling Aang's mentor and father figure, Gyatso (Lim Kay Siu). In the animated series, Aang finds Gyatso's skeleton in the Southern Air Temple surrounded by the bodies of dozens of Fire Nation soldiers. It seems that the Netflix series is raising the drama on this fight by having Sozin himself — the initiator of the Hundred Year War — be the one to actually strike the killing blow against the monk.
This might just be for the sake of narrative drama, or it could mark a slight change in the timeline. In the original "Avatar" series, Sozin was already quite old by the time Avatar Roku died. It's another 12 years between then and the attack on the temple. Of course, Sozin's Comet would give him a major power boost, which is how the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads so quickly. Even still, it seems odd that he would be the one leading the charge on one of the four temples.
Sokka joins the fight
One last shot in the new live-action "Avatar" trailer that appears to be a change from the original shows Aang and Sokka attacking a Fire Nation ship. In the background of the shot, you can see an iceberg peaking out of the water, suggesting that this scene takes place at the North Pole during Admiral Zhao's siege of the Water Tribe. In the animated version, there's a sequence where Aang flies out solo to attack the ships in Zhao's navy, and he does a pretty good job. Unfortunately, the assembled armada is just too big for him to handle alone. "You have to," Princess Yue implores him when he gets back from the attack. "You're the Avatar." "I'm just one kid," Aang replies.
Here, it seems that the fight in question goes a little differently. Sokka flies out with Aang on Appa to help him keep the ships at bay, and you can see in the shot that he's wearing traditional Water Tribe war armor — surely borrowed from his northern kin. In the animated series, Sokka is busy being trained for a secret spy mission during this time, which he ultimately gets pulled off of to guard Princess Yue. Yue's brash fiance Hahn will appear in the Netflix series, played by Joel Oulette, but if Sokka is riding into battle with Aang this time, his relationship with Hahn may be portrayed a bit differently.