Netflix’s Live-Action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Showrunner Jumps Ship, Will Now Serve As EP On Disney’s ‘Percy Jackson And The Olympians’
Spencer Baculi
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In a major staffing shake-up for the Netflix series – albeit an unsurprising one given the quality of its first season – Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender showrunner Albert Kim has reportedly exited the series in favor of a new position at a rival studio.
Word of Kim’s voluntary departure was first broken on April 4th, courtesy of Variety‘s Joe Otterson.
Relaying information originally provided to him by his supposed insider sources, Otterson revealed that in light of the recent expiration of his multi-year Avatar development contract with Netflix, Kim had chosen to ‘explore new opportunities’ by accepting a position as an executive producer on Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Kim’s new contract will also see him help to develop a number of to-be-determined projects for the House of Mouse.
Notably, the now ex-showrunner’s exit comes just a little over a month after Netflix announced that they had renewed Avatar: The Last Airbender for two final seasons.
As such, per Otterson’s sources, the series will now be co-helmed by the first season’s executive producer Jabbar Raisaini, whose previous Hollywood credit include serving as the VFX supervisor on Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, and co-executive producer Christine Boylan, whose work history includes stints as the supervising producer on Once Upon A Time and a co-executive producer on Marvel’s The Punisher.
Unfortunately for the widely-panned adaptation, Kim is but the latest of its major production talent to have exited the series prior to its conclusion.
In 2020, both of the franchise’s original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koneitzko, left the the project over creative differences regarding its direction.
“When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners,” explained DiMartino in an open letter published to his personal blog. “In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.”
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“I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded,” he further detailed. “So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.”
“And who knows?” he added. “Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good. It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.”
Likewise, in a statement published to his personal Instagram account, Koneitzko similarly asserted, “When Netflix brought me on board to run this series alongside Mike two years ago, they made a very public promise to support our vision. Unfortunately, there was no follow-through on that promise. Though I got to work with some great individuals, both on Netflix’s side and on our own small development team, the general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment.”
“To be clear, this was not a simple matter of us not getting our way,” said Koenitzko. “Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them. However, we ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series.”
As of writing, Netflix has yet to commence filming on the second season of its Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
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