Simply while you thought every thing about Paramount, CBS, and the regime change led by Skydance’s David Ellison was completely cool and chill, the corporate-strategy drops on Avatar: The Final Airbender. I can’t play this cool — I’m deeply saddened to report that the upcoming function movie The Legend of Aang: The Final Airbender will skip its deliberate theatrical run and land straight on streaming in 2026. Christmas is (mildly) ruined.
All the best way again in 2021, Viacom, then the homeowners of Paramount, introduced the formation of Avatar Studios to provoke a slew of tales set within the Avatar universe. Chief amongst them: a brand new film starring Aang and the Aang Gang. The Legend of Aang: The Final Airbender was delayed repeatedly over time, even because the studio made progress, with Steven Yeun and Dave Bautista finally introduced as main the forged. Nonetheless, updates have been few and much between — a wholly new Avatar collection, Secure Havens, was revealed for the reason that first announcement of The Legend of Aang. I assume followers of the franchise must be glad that the film has not been outright killed, however in line with a information launch from Paramount on Tuesday, the theatrical launch plans for the movie The Legend of Aang: The Final Airbender have been completely scrapped.
Boo, hiss, and so on. A splash of enjoyable information got here out of the big-screen dying knell; Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Freida Pinto, and Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan will all voice characters within the film. However now it’s straight-to-streaming on Paramount Plus, to be packaged as a lead-in to the debut of Secure Havens.
I do know I must be grateful that Paramount isn’t fully burying the film and taking a tax write-off. (RIP, Batgirl.) Avatar followers are consuming properly — on high of the brand new collection and movie, there are new video video games and beautiful Magic: The Gathering playing cards, plus second and third seasons of Netflix’s live-action present for whoever enjoys that. However I wished to see my boy Aang on the massive display screen. I wished to see this franchise get its redemption arc after the M. Night time Shyamalan film, to be as massive as SpongeBob SquarePants as a cross-medium titan.
No cube. Like Amon stealing the bending powers away from Korra, the ability of The Legend of Aang has been stripped away and diminished to #content material. Sadly, I don’t suppose the soulpatched Avatar can step in to avoid wasting the day like final time.
The Legend of Aang: The Final Airbender will premiere on Paramount Plus in fall 2026.
