WMG / Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

There will be a Take That! towards the M. Night Shyamalan movie

• Somebody will mistakenly call Aang "Ong."
  • Alternatively, in the second season, Toph will repeatedly mispronounce his name as such in an effort to get under his skin, and part of him finally standing his ground back on her, and finally getting into that Earthbender mindset, will be him countering, "AANG! JUST ONCE!"
• If the events of Imprisoned are adapted, Katara will be surprised that the Earthbenders are being kept at a rig in the middle of the ocean, only for a guard to respond with "Where were you expecting to go? A quarry?"
• The Blue Spirit wanted poster is drawn with hair, much to Zuko's bafflement.
• If The Ember Island Players gets adapted, the cast of the play will be played by the actors from the film. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan himself could cameo as the play's director.

Jet's fate will be a little more clear

Due to censorship, Jet in the cartoon was an infamous case of Uncertain Doom until Word of God confirmed that he died. Since this version appears to be aimed at a slightly older demographic, Jet will pass away onscreen or be explicitly Spared by the Adaptation.

Aang and Zuko's backstory will be explained much earlier than in the animated series

Aang will tell his backstory when he finds his home to be completely deserted and/or finds Gyatso's skeleton. Iroh will tell Zuko's backstory to the crew after Zuko's ship has been bombarded with ice with Zuko having disagreements with the crew that they need to keep going to capture the Avatar while the crew will argue that they need time to recover.

• Confirmed, Aang's backstory serves as the prologue of the first season, while Zuko's is elaborated on in a later episode.

The graphic novels will be adapted

Either as a fourth season, or as Direct-To-Streaming movies.

• Season One does include a reference to the Mother of Faces, so it looks like the comic lore will be accounted for to some capacity.

Iroh's invasion of Ba Sing Se will be shown

Casting for future seasons

• Toph:
  • A fresh new young actress of East Asian descent, Toph will likely be whoever plays her first major role.
• The Boulder:
  • Dwayne Johnson
• Long Feng:
  • Chow Yun-fat
• Lu Ten:
  • Dante Basco
• Guru Pathik:
  • Shaun Toub. Maybe as a Mythology Gag, he can even appear in a flashback to Zuko searching the Air Temples and he and Iroh have tea together.
• Lo and Li: Amy Hill
• Joo Dee: Lauren Tom reprises her role.
• Azulon: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Episodes or characters that will be Adapted Out

You can only fit so much in eight hours, so here is some speculation on what will be removed.

• "Imprisoned": As of this post, there are no confirmed actors for Haru, Tyro, or the Warden, and apart from the former two helping out during the Day Of Black Sun, they ultimately weren't important characters. That would mean the subplot with Katara's necklace would have to start somewhere else, like during the Winter Solstice.
  • Confirmed.
• "The Great Divide": Even if that episode wasn't so hated, it was easily skippable. Like with "Imprisoned", there are no confirmed actors for any of the characters introduced in that episode.
  • Confirmed. The Great Divide only gets a passing mention.
• "The Fortune Teller": There are no confirmed actors for Aunt Wu or Meng, and that episode could be written off as filler.
  • Confirmed. Like "The Great Divide", this storyline is only mentioned.
• Bato: Despite June, whom was introduced in the same episode, being confirmed to show up, Bato isn't. Since "Bato Of The Water Tribe" wasn't a very warmly received episode apart from introducing June, her subplot will be reworked into another point in Book 1.
  • Jossed, Bato appears in a flashback.
• Jeong Jeong: No casting for Jeong Jeong has been announced. It remains to be seen if Aang is still reluctant to begin learning firebending, though that's easy enough to deal with.
  • Confirmed, as of Season One, at least.
  • Additionally Episode 2 seems to show Aang being afraid of his bending being too strong with just his Air Bending, where he accidentally knocks bystanders off the cliff, it stands to reason that he would be afraid of being too powerful with the other disciplines, particularly Fire.

Characters who could potentially undergo Death by Adaptation

Since this show is aimed at an older audience, this could potentially raise the stakes.

• Sokka: We never learn how he died by the time The Legend of Korra took place, and we saw that he had no next of kin. Maybe he could get killed during the events of Sozin's Comet.
• Anybody who helped out during The Day Of Black Sun, like the Mechanist or Hakoda.
• Earth King Kuei: Since he never showed up again after the Siege of Ba Sing Se, it wouldn't be too out of character for Azula to kill him. That would mean his daughter would have to be a baby at this point.
  • Expect the King was shown in an brief flashback cameo in the original source's third season and he went incaigio with his pet bear to see the world because he never had the chance to be out of the palace before.

Aang's mother will have some screen time.

There's a character credited as "Yukari" on IMDB, a character who was never in the original show. One theory is that this is Aang's mother and that she will have an actual role in Aang's story.

• Jossed. Yukari is the mayor of Kyoshi Island and Suki's mother.

Yukari is going to be Doomed by Canon

She didn't exist in the source material, and as we've seen in the trailers, Zhao is going to attack Kyoshi Island instead of Zuko. While Zuko killing somebody would be pretty hard to forgive during his redemption, Zhao committing the deed would be more in-character.

• Jossed. Yukari is an adaptation of the mayor, and she survives the attack.

Possible Remake Cameos

• Dante Basco: As mentioned above, he could play Lu Ten.
• Greg Baldwin: He could be a customer at the Jasmine Dragon.
• Grey Delisle: She could play the handmaiden Azula banished for failing to extract the cherry pit, especially since she already voiced her in the original.
• Mark Hamill: Swap roles with Daniel Dae Kim and play General Fong.
• The entire original cast as the Ember Island Players. It'd be the perfect meta joke for an already-meta stage play.
• It seem unlikely non-Asian members of the original cast will have cameos.
  • They could make verbal cameos.

Possible plot elements from spin-off and prequel media that can be brought in.

• Raava can make appearance, and be the one to confirm she put Aang in the Iceberg to save him from the Fire Nation.
• In Kyoshi's case it's confirmed since her background of being an orphan and servant girl who became an unsuspecting Avatar was mentioned in the second episode.
• The Fog of Lost Souls (Which was introduced in Korra's series) is shown in the fifth episode which is akin to the Gang getting lost in The Swamp in the cartoon's second season.
• The sixth episode mentions and shows a figurine of the Mother of Faces from The Search, and the seventh episode features Kuruk's backstory from the second Kyoshi novel.

Toph in this adaption will be one of Bumi's old students.

Considering that the Beifong family is rich, surely they must be able to have audiences with the king of Omashu himself. While she does end up learning earthbending and honing her senses from the badgermoles, Bumi takes it upon himself to train Toph to be the best earthbender following close behind him, with him acting as a grandfather figure to the blind earthbender. It'd also be epic to see a flashback of the two dueling it out. With Omashu taken over, Bumi would've surely figured out ahead of time that Aang would be journeying back to Omashu, which is now under Ozai's rule. He warns Aang not to seek him out, but to find an old student and friend of his, "The Blind Bandit".

Roku acted silly to put Aang at ease after Kyoshi's encounter with Aang.

Roku thought that Kyoshi was too harsh with Aang when they had their first interaction. So, to make sure Aang felt comfortable talking to his past lives, Roku deliberately acted goofy, even if it was unlike him to do normally.

Suki will join the Gaang in Season 2

Sokka will confront his father over his insincere comments about him.

Sokka was clearly bothered about overhearing his father talk bad about him behind his back after his ice flow initiation. Sokka may be so frustrated with his father that he will eventually call him out on his words. Hakoda will feel remorse for not supporting his son enough and change his attitude towards Sokka.

Wan's (and the Avatar as a whole's) origin story will be covered at some point in the series.

This will be used to better set up Aang learning from a lion turtle how to take away Ozai's bending. Zhao already name-dropped lion turtles in the first season finale, so at least one seed is already planted.

Azula will attempt to capture Zuko and Iroh, but with a twist.

Instead of the captain of Azula's ship accidentally announcing them as prisoners, Lieutenant Jee will "accidentally" announce them as prisoners, repaying Zuko for saving the 41st division and possibly foreshadowing Azula's difficulties with trying to keep people under her thumb.

Lieutenant Jee will have a Big Damn Heroes moment during Sozin's Comet

During Zuko and Katara's battle with Azula, she will sic the Dai Li (whom she won't banish this time) on them in an act of desperation. Even with Sozin's Comet powering him, they give him a run for his money. Just as Azula prepares to finish him off, Zuko's crew comes in, with Jee leading them.

• The 41st division could also be among the speculators of the Last Agni Kai. They witness the madly-driven Azula shooting lightning at Katara, a spectator herself, and Zuko sacrificing himself to save her. The act proclaims that Azula has forfeited the Agni Kai, so this gives Jee and his men a reason to intervene and "purge" the corrupted Dai Li when they try to kill off Zuko and Katara. Jee gets the injured Zuko to safety while Katara battles Azula.

Katara will learn Bloodbending in different circumstances

Katara mentions that the Southern Waterbenders were killed instead of captured by the Fire Nation (although a later line implies some may have fled the region rather than being killed by the Fire Nation) which would mean that Hama wouldn't have been captured which would lead to her learning bloodbending to escape and then later taught it to Katara as she's a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. This means that Katara would have learned bloodbending differently, assuming it is adapted at all.

• While in Katara's time all known Waterbenders outed to The Fire Nation Army were killed, but decades ago in the cartoon when her grandma was an young woman the benders were simply captured and taken to the Fire Nation mostly with their families all assuming the worse that their love ones were killed, not knowing they were caged up and their hands were bound every time they need an drink of water. It was implied by Hama many died in captivity while she eventually escaped years later thanks to Bloodbending. Fans of the animation series say Hama's escape this why the Fire Nation started to kill Waterbenders when they went on Future Raids so they wouldn't have another incident like Hama who escaped the prison and was living in plain sight of her former kidnappers since she never left the Fire Nation (Although that was mostly because she wanted revenge which she did every Full Moon until being arrested)

Jeong Jeong will appear in Season 3 (if the show goes the full three years) with Piandao as a member of his band, and they will train Aang and Sokka simultaneously.

• Combustion Man could replace Zhao as Jeong Jeong's old student. Also, Chey could get to be even more of a Dude, Where's My Respect? guy if he's the third person who officially deserted the Fire Nation and lived rather than the second.

Zuko won't turn on Team Avatar at the end of season 2 and will stay with them for the rest of the show.

• Eliminating Zuko's time back in Ozai's good graces would be useful for streamlining the events of Book 3 and cutting out some Padding.
  • Doubtful. The big goal for Team Avatar in Mid-Season 3 is the Day of Black Sun, which is their failed attempt to defeat the Fire Lord before the Comet arrives without needing Aang to learn firebending. That event also marks Zuko's Heel–Face Turn in the animated series. And right before the Comet shows up on Ozai's astrology map, the sun and moon briefly overlap each other, meaning that the Day of Black Sun is happening. The only padding was Team Avatar enjoying themselves in Fire Nation towns while they wait for their invasion force to assemble.

The Fire Nation Army and Navy have an interservice rivalry

• The attack on the Northern Water Tribe wasn't strategically necessary to support the Fire Nation's efforts to take Omashu, especially given the risk to the Fire Nation's fleet. It was done to give the Fire Nation's Navy some comparable glory as the Fire Nation's Army took Omashu.

Zuko and Katara will actually interact at the Jasmine Dragon.

• In the original cartoon, Katara was going to grab a cup of tea at the Jasmine Dragon before she realized that Zuko and Iroh were there. In this version, Zuko may actually try to give her a table and wait on her like a normal customer. However, she'll freak out when she realizes that it's him and run away. Zuko might have the choice to chase after her because he knows by default that Aang is in Ba Sing Se if Katara is in the city. However, he instead lets her go, willing to move on with his life rather than waste his time chasing Aang.

Aang will meet a descendant of Kuzon (like if the Gaang still ends up undercover at a Fire Nation school, mingles with Boiling Rock inmates, or helps villagers who Hama is terrorizing).

• Maybe On Ji. She'll recognize Aang's alias as the same as her great grandfather, giving them something to bond over.

The unusual ages that Sozin and/or Azulon started families at will be explained or retconned.

• Either there will be an additional generation between them or one of them lost his original wife and child/ren to something like an assassination attempt or natural disaster and had to remarry in his old age to ensure the survival of the bloodline.

A young Yakone will be a student of Hama

After all, he had to have learned Bloodbending from somebody. At the end of the episode, he will get pursued by Fire Nation soldiers sometime after Hama's arrest. He will instinctively Bloodbend to ward off his pursuers before looking up at the moon and realizing it's in a waning crescent.

The Combustion Man will fill the Rough Rhinos' role in Season 2

Since the Rough Rhinos ended up being a troupe of wasted characters, the Combustion Man will pursue Zuko and Iroh. They will barely escape with their lives, but Zuko will be impressed with his powers.

Aang's coma at the end of Season 2 will be extended

Instead of being knocked out for a few weeks, he'll have been out for months, if not a year. This will add to Aang's pressure to master Firebending before Sozin's Comet comes.

Zuko will have a major case of Adaptational Heroism and Genre Savvy by season 2 and onward

After learning that his Impossible Task was merely a sham made by Ozai to motivate Azula and had no interest in taking his son back. Since season 2 will likely take place a couple years after the season 1 finale, Zuko spends years reflecting on this and ultimately decides that chasing Team Avatar is a waste of time and journeys with Uncle Iroh to Ba Sing Se to establish a new life. By the end of season 2, he's grown accustomed to his new life with his loving uncle... until he learns that his sister, Azula, has taken control of the Dai Li and is plotting to take Ba Sing Se... and murder the Avatar (by means of studying Zuko's entries). Zuko holds no intention of returning to the Fire Nation and is much more savvy with his sister's manipulations, and is horrified of Azula's intentions of killing Aang (and, keep in mind, Zuko merely wanted to capture Aang alive). He'd likely only resort to going home when Azula blackmails him by threatening to kill their uncle when she promises to spare Iroh and arrest him for "treason". Azula would only want Zuko back home so when her plans fail and Aang somehow survives, she'd make sure Zuko would be the one to blame if Ozai realizes.

• This would also be Azula's case of Nice Job Fixing It, Villain, as taking back a newly reformed Zuko back to Fire Nation helps him realize how corrupt his country is under Ozai's reign. And Zuko manages to eavesdrop on his father about Sozin's Comet and his plot to use it to destroy the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribe, and his own Fire Nation Colonies that same way Sozin used it to wipeout the Air Nomads. Zuko decides to deflect to Team Avatar upon learning this, warns Lieutenant Jee and the 41st Division, and help them escape with supplies during the Day of Black Sun.