Avatar: The Last Airbender fans have taken to social media with some truly horrific art to mock the upcoming Netflix adaptation. While the original animated series remains beloved among audiences to this day, Avatar's previous venture into live-action didn't go very well. Director M. Night Shyamalan brought Avatar to the big screen with 2010's The Last Airbender, but it was poorly received by fans and still is considered one of the worst adaptations of all time. As a result, fans were wary when Netflix announced in 2018 they were developing a live-action Avatar series. The only thing appeasing many was that Avatar's original creators, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, would be working on the show as well.
That sadly has changed. Earlier on Wednesday, DiMartino announced he and Konietzko are no longer attached to Netflix's Avatar. Di Martino stated that while they were brought on with the promise that their creative vision would be honored, "things did not go as we had hoped." Koneitzko later echoed this in a statement of his own, where he called the handling of the project to be "what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment." It didn't take long for fans to feel worried all over again about this newest attempt at making Avatar live-action, and they quickly vented their feelings in some creative ways on social media.
One of the biggest criticisms leveled at The Last Airbender was that nearly every major character was played by a white actor. Avatar's world is steeped in Asian culture, so the characters should therefore be played by performers of color. DiMartino and Konietzko initially promised to cast POC in the roles, but with their departure, there's much concern over whether that will still happen. Fans have begun sharing terrible images of a hypothetical Avatar cast filled with white actors like Cole Sprouse and Scarlett Johansson. You can see a few of them down below.
Regardless of the quality of the rest of the series, if Netflix doesn't cast actors of color in their Avatar, it will undoubtedly be seen as a failure among many. DiMartino and Konietzko's exit doesn't necessarily mean Netflix is considering white actors for the series, but it is a valid fear for many people to have. Their departure also doesn't bode well for the series as a whole; if they're dissatisfied with how the series is progressing, how will fans feel about it? It's still too early to pass judgement about how Avatar will come out, but there's certainly a new level of wariness.
Netflix can easily begin assuaging fans' fears by casting actors of color in the roles. Whitewashing has sadly been a long-running issue in Hollywood, but Avatar provides the opportunity to bring about some real advancements in Asian representation. While creative differences are clearly the reason why DiMartino and Konietzko left Netflix's Avatar, those differences might not have been about casting. At this point, fans will just have to wait and see which direction this goes in.
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