Netflix's reboot of Avatar: The Last Airbender will include four Avatars, which will greatly help Aang's story in the series in a specific way. With factors such as Daniel Dae Kim's casting as Fire Lord Ozai and numerous other components, Netflix's Avatar looks like it is preparing a whole new take on the show's story. As Avatar fans continue to wait for the much anticipated live-action reboot of the series on the way from Netflix, one new piece of information could be very illuminating about it.
Avatar will reportedly include Avatars Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk, comprising a total of four Avatars with Aang (Gordon Cormier) himself. With Aang being an Air Nomad, Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk (played by C. S. Lee, Yvonne Chapman, and Meegwun Fairbrother) each respectively hail from the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and Water Tribe. Though their status as Avatars makes them and Aang capable of mastering every element, the involvement of Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk is great news for Aang's Avatar training.
Aang's training to master Water, Earth, and Fire formed the foundation of each of the three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon (Fire importantly coming last for Aang), with the young Avatar needing his full Avatar bending capabilities to stop the Fire Nation's war on the world. Netflix's Avatar will obviously be devoting much attention to the beginning of Aang's training, but he's very unlikely to be shown mastering all the elements in the show's first season. This is where the presence of Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk is advantageous to the Avatar reboot, as the three can most directly facilitate Aang's introduction to the elements foreign to him.
Aang's Introduction To Each Element Can Happen In Avatar Season 1 (& That's Great)
Aang was formally instructed in the arts of bending Water, Earth, and Fire by Katara, Toph Beifong, and Zuko on Avatar, among Aang's numerous bending mentors. While the Netflix Avatar reboot might follow a similar path, Aang's ability to speak directly to his past lives as the Avatar could also play into his training with Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk themselves acting as mentors to Aang. Like Aang, each of them was born capable of bending a specific element before mastering the others, and they could be the first individuals to show Aang the basics of the element each Avatar is directly connected to.
Just as Aang did, Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk had to undergo strenuous training to gain power over three additional elements. While each can provide Aang with some general guidance in his Avatar training, their native elements could be where they provide the most wisdom, with Water, Earth, and Fire being completely new to Aang. The stories of Aang's three predecessors in the Avatar reboot could also show parallel flashback stories to Aang's own origin as the Avatar, recounting their challenges in gaining control over all the elements to show how Aang can overcome his by following their examples.
Aang's training to wield all four elements was the heart of the story of Avatar, and something that Netflix's Avatar reboot is bound to retain in its story. By having Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk as past Avatars with relatively prominent roles, the series could present a new take on how Aang is first familiarized with each element. Aang might still be principally trained by Katara, Toph, and Zuko on Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, but his past lives of Roku, Kyoshi, and Kuruk being the ones to introduce him to Water, Earth, and Fire as Aang travels the world with Team Avatar could add a completely new dynamic to the new Avatar's training.