Bryke left the Netflix live-action ATLA series two months ago. It’s not the end of the world.
Like the title says, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the co-creators and showrunners of Avatar: The Last Airbender the The Legend of Korra, have left their positions as executive producers and showrunners of the live-action adaptation of ATLA at Netflix, and will have no involvement with it going forward.
They worked on it for approximately two years, since the original announcement back in September 2018.
The classic “creative differences” reason is given for why they left.
First, the full text of both their statements.
“Before I get to the crux of this statement, I would like to make it clear that I am very aware and appreciative of the fact that I am in an exceedingly fortunate position, and that the following issues are indeed good problems to have - even more so now that we are in the grips of a global pandemic and a cratering economy which have left millions unemployed. With that crucial context, here is the big news from my little world.
Michael DiMartino and I recently chose to leave Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the series he and I created together in 2002. We will have no involvement in the project moving forward.
This is probably the most difficult decision I have ever made. But there is no doubt in my mind it was absolutely the right choice. 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. 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.
Though I am profoundly disappointed by how things turned out, there are wonderfully talented people who are still working on the series, some of whom Mike and I personally hired and got to know well during our time on the project. We worked very hard together towards a shared dream of how special this adaptation could be. I want to see them employed, and I hope they get the chance to do their best work on the series. Perhaps the team that remains might still be able to make something fans of the original and an entirely new audience can enjoy.
By and large, I have an incredibly charmed career and I am very grateful for it. And I am enormously lucky for the amazing global community of fans that has grown around the shows Mike and I have created and run together. I will continue to be deeply involved in the Avatar universe, telling the stories that my partner and I want to tell in the way we want to tell them. I will put my time, energy, and talent towards the projects that give me the most fulfilment [sic], and where I am afforded trust and respect.
Life is too short to do otherwise.”
This was also his caption on Instagram:
“Well, friends… there you have it. Big sigh. 💔⬇️💔 I’m sure many of you will understandably want to know more and will ask me questions in the comments, here and on subsequent posts and live-streams and in-person encounters and everywhere else ad infinitum. I wish I could explain things in greater detail, but the above statement is really all I can say about the matter so I won’t be answering any of those. […] Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, and I’m sorry our involvement in the live-action project did not work out. Time to get on with my life. Onward and upward.”
“Many of you have been asking me for updates about the Avatar live-action Netflix series. I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production.
When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. 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.
Look, things happen. Productions are challenging. Unforeseen events arise. Plans have to change. And when those things have happened at other points during my career, I try to be like an Air Nomad and adapt. I do my best to go with the flow, no matter what obstacle is put in my way. But even an Air Nomad knows when it’s time to cut their losses and move on.
I started to reevaluate what is truly important in my life and what I wanted to do with what’s left of it. I took some advice from Uncle Iroh. I looked inward and started asking myself the big question: “Who are you and what do you want?”
I also sought wisdom from Stoic philosophers who were big on differentiating between what is within our control and what isn’t. I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. 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? 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.
I also want to be clear that this doesn’t mean the end of my involvement in the Avatar universe. These stories and characters are important to me and the renewed interest and excitement in Avatar and Korra has been inspiring to see.
Writing this letter has left me with a very heavy heart. I know many of you will be disappointed and frustrated by this news. I get it. I share your disappointment and frustration. I also recognize this creative setback is small compared to the problems we’re all facing as a society right now.
Thankfully, Iroh offered some wisdom for that, too: “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving you will come to a better place.”
May we all keep moving and come to a better place.
Thanks for reading and for your continued enthusiasm for the Avatar universe.”
(from his Instagram and website)
Netflix has not made a statement yet.
Obviously, they were both very vague about everything. It’s highly likely that they signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of their exits that will prevent them from saying anything more than what they did today.
It does seem to be mainly “creative differences” though.
The one place they went a bit further and said something might actually be wrong was Bryan with this sentence:
“As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them.”
Implication: ideas were against the spirit and integrity of Avatar.
The first thing that comes to mind is whitewashing. Honestly, the only way we’ll know if it was this is if the show ends up casting white people. Until then, there’s no way to know. If it is whitewashed, I’ll stop reporting on it (but to be honest, I highly doubt it’s this).
The second thing that I can imagine it being is shipping. I can see Netflix wanting to have an actual love triangle between Aang, Katara, and Zuko, whereas Zutara never existed in the original show and Bryke was always very against it. But even this seems unlikely; I doubt they would walk away from the show over it when even with a love triangle existing, the original Kataang pairing would still “win” in the end.
Aside from those potential reasons, it really seems more like they just couldn’t work in that environment the way they wanted to. And that’s okay!
Both of them made a point to say that Netflix publicly promised to support their vision and then didn’t, and that they realized they wouldn’t be able to creatively control the show. Running a huge live-action production is extremely different from running cartoons where they pretty much went off and did whatever they wanted. If they wanted that level of control, that’s completely fine, it’s a valid creative process, and it’s good they left a project where it wasn’t possible. Personal and professional differences happen all the time in the workplace, and making a TV show is no exception. If Netflix ran things in a way that was incompatible with Bryke as creative people, it makes sense that it wouldn’t work out.
2. The future of live-action ATLA
The live-action adaptation is still happening without Bryke. The team they assembled is still moving forward. For example, Jeremy Zuckerman, the composer of ATLA and TLOK, is still doing the music (presumably– he hasn’t made an announcement that he’s leaving too).
Furthermore, we don’t know who the new showrunner(s) will be, and we still have no idea who any of the directors or writers will be. It’s completely up in the air, and, again unless it’s whitewashed and it becomes obvious that’s why they left, right now there’s no reason to enter complete panic mode. You might really like who ends up working on it (or you might hate them, in which case yeah you can panic).
Listen, I get it. This sort of thing is rarely a good sign, and two years of work with nothing to show and then the creators leaving fully qualifies this show for the label development hell at this point.
But I don’t worship Bryke. And that’s coming from someone whose favorite season of the whole Avatar franchise is Korra Book One: Air, the one Bryke wrote singlehandedly! I’m just saying that until we find out more, this show is really still a complete mystery and could go in any direction.
It’s also just a TV show. There’s lots of terrible ones out there, and if this ends up one of them, at least we’re used to it right? 🙃
But again, it could also still end up a great one! Bryke even said so.
3. The future of the Avatar franchise. THIS IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS
Last time Bryke finished their involvement with an Avatar show (Korra), they were very clear that they were done with Avatar for now and that there would be no more.
This time, they both talk about how they will be heavily involved in Avatar moving forward. They just spent two years enthusiastically jumping back into the franchise, and at the tail end of that, Avatar became bigger than ever before. (The huge news articles about them leaving is testament to that alone!)
I want to stress that this is just MY PERSONAL GUESS, but…
I’m predicting that a third Avatar animated series run by Bryke will be announced imminently.
Or something similarly big like movie(s).
I might be wrong, but I’m just reading the signs, and I’ve read them correctly before with Bryke’s involvement in this franchise.
First of all, they left the live-action show two months ago. That’s plenty of time to get something new going, even the basest of decisions just to make a new animated show.
I feel like you don’t just spend two years dedicating your life to Avatar again and then completely drop it. Remember, the show would have taken at least 5-10 years to complete. They were enthusiastically committing to spending a large portion of the rest of their lives on Avatar again.
Their statements also don’t reflect the mindset of people who easily let others control Avatar. In fact, it’s quite the opposite– they both explain that they left because their creative vision wasn’t being upheld. They actually don’t own Avatar, which means the only way they can control it is by actively running it. If they don’t, someone else will be, because like it or not Nickelodeon wants a piece of that new popularity just as much as Netflix, and new content will come one day sooner or later no matter what.
Additionally, Bryke announced they were separating after Korra ended, going their separate ways. Now, they’re referring to each other as their partner again.
And lastly… this wouldn’t be the first time Bryke suddenly makes a new animated show when a live-action adaptation of ATLA goes wrong. Just sayin’.
Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe they’re actually saying they’re going to settle down with their families and keep consulting on comics and novels from afar. I just don’t get that feeling from what they wrote, nor from the sequence of events that led to this.
The question does arise as to why this new show wouldn’t be part of their announcement today. The answer is who knows! Maybe they want to drive up hype first, maybe it’s part of whatever they signed with Netflix, maybe it’s just not ready to announce yet (or again maybe I’m simply wrong).The media news cycle works in mysterious ways!
And with that I’ll end this mega-post.
This is definitely not the big update about live-action ATLA that we wanted, but it’s not all bad (it could be really, really good), and it’s not the end of the world.
