Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

Plot

Thirteen years after the end of the Hundred-Year War, Avatar Aang and his friends help rebuild the world by establishing Republic City as a home for people of all nations. While returning artifacts to a desolate Air Temple, Aang is ambushed by the Denied, a group of non-bending warriors searching for a relic tied to the mysterious Avatar Sonam. Although Aang repels their attack and saves the temple, the Denied escape with a map recovered from the Sonam relic. Aang travels to Republic City to warn his girlfriend and appointed Council Representative, Katara.

Concerned about the future of the Air Nomads as their last surviving airbender, Aang consults his past lives. Avatar Xian reveals to Aang that Sonam was a forgotten Avatar whose staff could channel the energy of the Spirit World and grant its wielder immense power. Believing the Denied seek the staff, Aang takes off and asks Katara via letter to gather their friends—Sokka, now living in the Southern Water Tribe; Toph, who trains earthbenders; and Fire Lord Zuko, ruler of the Fire Nation—and meet Aang at the staff's last known location atop Mount Baihu.

At the mountain, Aang discovers the frozen body of an airbender. After rescuing him, the group learns he is Tagah, a former non-bender whom Sonam granted airbending through her staff. Tagah persuades the group to accompany him to an island surrounded by a cyclone where the staff is said to rest. As Aang is taught by Tagah forgotten airbending techniques, he begins to hope that the Air Nomads can one day be restored. Although Tagah shares this vision, he expresses resentment toward the other bending nations. The Denied launch a surprise attack on the group's airship and Tagah retaliates. As they fly through the cyclone, Aang and Tagah airbend a path through the storm and the rest of the group work to fix the airship. Noting Tagah's ruthless methods and the dangerous mission, Katara asks Aang to abandon his pursuit of the staff, but Aang dismisses her concerns, prioritizing his desire for the staff over the safety of his friends.

On the island, Aang retrieves the staff by wielding all four elements. Tagah follows but is confronted by Katara. Revealing his true intentions, Tagah attacks and kills the group, including Aang, and steals the staff with the plan to use its power to restore what he believes to be Air Nomad supremacy. After Tagah departs, Sonam's spirit appears to Aang in an alternate realm and reveals that she hid the staff and imprisoned Tagah after he became consumed by trauma and hatred for non-airbenders. Landing in a pool of spirit water, Katara revives herself from Tagah's assault and then revives the others, allowing the group to pursue Tagah through the Spirit World to Republic City.

Voice cast

Eric Nam as Avatar Aang, the last living Air Nomad of the Southern Air Temple, and the current Avatar who had been kept unnaturally alive in an iceberg for a century. He is now chronologically 125 years old. He was originally voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen.

Sander Argabrite as younger Aang

Dave Bautista as Tagah, an ancient airbender from Avatar Sonam's time who was frozen in ice much like Aang himself.

Jessica Matten as Katara, a Southern Water Tribe waterbender. She is Sokka's younger sister and Aang's girlfriend who taught him waterbending. She was originally voiced by Mae Whitman.

Román Zaragoza as Sokka, a Southern Water Tribe warrior, strategist, and Katara's older brother. He was originally voiced by Jack DeSena.

Dionne Quan as Toph Beifong, a blind earthbender and Aang's earthbending teacher during the Hundred-Year War, who can "see" by sensing vibrations on the ground and runs a metalbending academy. She was originally voiced by Michaela Jill Murphy.

Steven Yeun as Fire Lord Zuko, the current ruler of the Fire Nation and a former enemy-turned-ally of Aang who taught him firebending to help defeat his father, Phoenix King Ozai. He was originally voiced by Dante Basco.

Taika Waititi as the Gorillavark, a spirit who helps Team Avatar.

Geraldine Viswanathan as Kallik, a member of the Denied who has a change of heart and becomes an Air Acolyte.

Ronny Chieng as a Fire Nation messenger.

Ken Jeong as the cabbage merchant, an unlucky man from the Earth Kingdom who occasionally crossed paths with Team Avatar in the past. He was originally voiced by James Sie.

Production

Background and development

In 2018, Netflix announced that a live-action remake of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008) was to start production in 2019. The series' original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were initially announced to be the executive producers and showrunners. In June 2020, the creators departed the series due to creative differences. That same year, Nickelodeon licensed the original The Last Airbender as well as The Legend of Korra (2012–14) to Netflix, which led to a boom in popularity for both series. This success convinced Nickelodeon to rekindle their relationship with Konietzko and DiMartino and explore further opportunities.

In February 2021, ViacomCBS announced during its annual Investor Day the formation of Avatar Studios, a new division of Nickelodeon dedicated to the creation of projects based on animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. The series creators and executive producers Konietzko and DiMartino would serve as co-chief creative officers. It was also announced that the first project of the studio is an animated theatrical film that would begin production later in 2021. Original series executive producer Eric Coleman takes executive producer credit, with Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, Latifa Ouaou, and Maryann Garger as the film's producers.

In June 2022, it was announced that Lauren Montgomery, who was a storyboard artist on the original series and a supervising producer for Korra, would serve as director. In July 2022, Janet Varney, the voice of Korra, revealed that the plot of the film would revolve around the original series' characters. A sneak peek of the film was revealed at Paramount Pictures' CinemaCon presentation in April 2023, confirming that the film would follow the characters in their young adulthood. In April 2024, it was reported that William Mata would serve as co-director, alongside Montgomery. In April 2025, the title of the film was announced as The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender.

In March 2026, Montgomery revealed that production had wrapped and the final cut of the film had been screened for the entire cast and crew. Posts from the screening by Eric Nam and Román Zaragoza revealed that the film had been retitled Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. The next month, it was reported that the film's budget cost US$80 million.

Casting

In May 2023, Mae Whitman, the original voice actress for Katara, confirmed that she would not be reprising the role. She remarked that despite cherishing her experience, Whitman was excited to see "actors come in, who honestly fit the role much better" as she expressed an interest to have an actress who isn't white succeed her. The following year, at CinemaCon in April 2024, Paramount announced the casting of Eric Nam as Aang, Dionne Quan as Toph Beifong, Jessica Matten as Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, and Dave Bautista as the antagonist. In March 2025, Variety reported that Steven Yeun, who had previously voiced Avatar Wan in The Legend of Korra, joined the cast in an undisclosed role. He was later confirmed to be voicing Zuko four months later, succeeding the character's original voice actor Dante Basco. Later that December, more additional actors were announced to join the film, consisting of Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Freida Pinto, Ke Huy Quan, Peta Sergeant, and Dee Bradley Baker. Baker was revealed to be reprising his roles as Appa and Momo from the original series.

According to the film's casting director, Jenny Jue, the decision to recast the principal characters was on behalf of DiMartino and Konietzko. This direction was influenced by the increased emphasis on matching voice actors' ethnic and racial backgrounds to those of the characters they portray, a topic that arose in the industry in the years following the conclusion of the original series. Jue said, "ATLA is a fictional world, but there are cultural influences for each nation/kingdom, and we wanted to explore the talent from those groups".

Animation

In October 2022, it was reported that the Australian studio Flying Bark Productions would primarily provide the animation for the film. In May 2025, it was reported that Studio Mir in South Korea which previously provided animation for The Legend of Korra, would also provide additional animation services for the film. Alexia Gates-Foale, director of production for Flying Bark, said that working on the film will be "a dream project" for the studio due to multiple employees being fans of the franchise. The animation style used in the feature combines 2D hand-drawn animated characters with computer-animated environments taking inspiration from the Deep Canvas technology. Pioneered at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Deep Canvas had extensively been used in titles such as Tarzan (1999) and Treasure Planet (2002).

Music

Jeremy Zuckerman, who composed for the animated series, was revealed to be serving as the film's composer in November 2025. Zuckerman said that he was granted full access to an orchestra, stating that the bigger budget for the film enables him to try new things he could not do on the television series due to technological limits at the time. The soundtrack was released on the day of the film's San Diego Comic-Con premiere on July 24.

Release

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was released on Paramount+ on July 25, 2026. It was originally set to be released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on October 9, 2026. The film was previously expected to release on October 10, 2025, then was delayed to January 30, 2026, and then was delayed again to October 9, 2026, before the theatrical release was canceled and moved to Paramount+. While there was originally no confirmation of the film's streaming date, Montgomery revealed in March 2026 that the film would still release in October. According to Animation Magazine, "unspecified delays in physical animation production" led to the second release date push. On July 15, it was announced that the film will have a limited theatrical run in two theaters located in Los Angeles and New York from July 24 to July 30 in order to qualify the film for potential Oscars shortlist consideration.

Online leak

We worked on the Aang movie for years with the expectation that we'd get to celebrate all our hard work in theaters... Just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around Twitter like candy... This is incredibly disrespectful to all of the hard work the artists put in.

On April 12, 2026, portions of the film were leaked on X, with the leaker claiming that Nickelodeon accidentally emailed him the film. The leak revealed Dave Bautista and Taika Waititi's characters in the film, as well as Team Avatar being together. On April 13, reports emerged that the full film had leaked online in high quality. Following the leak, many fans and commentators used the positive reception of the footage to advocate for a reversal of the decision to not show the film in cinemas, arguing the "cinematic" quality of the animation warranted a big-screen release. However, the leak drew sharp condemnation from the film's production staff and animators, who argued that the unauthorized release disrespected years of professional labor and undermined the project's official launch. Animator Julia Schoel and artist Tom Barkel criticized the leak as "disrespectful", with Barkel noting that bypassing official releases could jeopardize future work for artists in a "hostile industry". Other crew members, including Henry Thurlow, Ilkwang Kim, and Tessa Bright, expressed that the leak robbed the creators of the professional milestone of a formal premiere and urged fans to wait for the official release to support the artists' efforts.

By April 16, an internal investigation by Paramount concluded that the leak was not caused by a vulnerability in their own systems, though the film was widely mirrored across the Internet despite copyright takedown efforts. The incident drew comparisons to a 2017 breach of Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and the leak of the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as it represented a major title being compromised months in advance. Michaela Jill Murphy, the original voice actress for Toph Beifong, condemned the leak by posting a message on social media to urge fans not to share art or clips of the film. During a panel at Supanova Expo that same week, Murphy expressed support for the film being officially released in theaters based on words of encouragement by co-star Olivia Hack, the voice actress for Ty Lee. The following week, on April 24, a 26-year-old man, identified as the person responsible for the leak of the film, was arrested in Singapore for accessing a media server without authorization. If convicted, he could face up to 7 years in prison, a fine of up to $50,000, or both.

Reception

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads, "Avatar Aang is a glowing continuation of The Last Airbender series, giving audiences an audacious update to their favorite characters while being technically proficient and visually captivating." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Wilson Chapman of IndieWire gave the film a C+ grade, calling it a "visually stunning work of animation, and one loaded with enough callbacks and references to the original that it will probably satisfy the show's very devoted fanbase," though criticized the film's decision to age up the characters, saying it "loses touch with the charm that made the original show so beloved in the first place." TheWrap's William Bibbiani gave the film a positive review, saying "it's powerful stuff, and fans of the series will take away additional nuance, since we know what Aang's decisions lead to, for better and worse," also noting that others "will find the film dazzling visually but undercooked in other ways." In a negative review, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Some heavy themes are also injected into the mix, such as the corruptive effects of power. But mostly the film seems content to wow you with its visuals, feeling rushed in its narrative and lurching from one violent episode to another."

Rend Jones of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four, saying it "justifies [the] theatrical experience", and added: "Considering that "Aang" is the first in a long line of "Avatar" productions, the debut venture for Avatar Studios makes a rock-solid mark that one can only hope gets sturdier in future entries. Nevertheless, it delivers a gratifying cinematic experience to the fanbase, as visually mesmerizing as it is a worthy storytelling contribution to a brilliant fantasy series." Joshua Rivera of The A.V. Club gave the film a C grade, writing: "For longtime fans, it is a generous gesture, a pleasurable reassurance that the creative voices stewarding these characters have not lost a beat and kept this world exactly as you remember it," while also saying that, "[a]fter suffering so many indignities, the embattled film turns out to be entirely inconsequential." Jesse Hassenger of The Guardian gave the film three out of five, calling it an "engaging TV-to-movie adventure", and noted: "If Avatar Aang is meant to serve as a proof of concept that this world can work on the big screen, consider that mission finally accomplished."