The Legend of Aang (film series)

***The Legend of Aang*** is an American multimedia franchise that is centered on a series of action-adventure fantasy films based on the Nickelodeon animated television series *Avatar: The Last Airbender*. The films are co-produced by Moonlight Pictures and Avatar Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the second live-action film adaptation of *Avatar: The Last Airbender*, following Nickelodeon Movies' *The Last Airbender* in 2010.

The series currently consists of one film, *The Legend of Aang: The Avatar Returns*, with two sequels planned.

## History

Moonlight Pictures and Raydon Entertainment have been working on a live-action *Avatar* film since 2014 with a draft being completed in mid-2015 under the title of *Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book One: Water* and was intended to be the first in a trilogy of films. A second draft was completed in late-2016 and in 2017 the film was set up at Fanatic Films, a newly formed studio at Raydon dedicated to non-profit fan films and was given a modest budget of $5,000. No further updates were given at the time.

On September 18, 2018, it was announced that original *Avatar* creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko would be teaming up with Netflix to produce a live-action remake of the original series, throwing the future of Raydon's fan film into doubt without any news in a year. The studio responded by saying they had placed the film on hold for now and that they were in negotiations to acquire the license to an "international icon," with that deal being their number one priority. It was announced in December 2019 that the "international icon" was Godzilla and that Raydon Entertainment would produce a series of films utilizing multiple monsters from the Japanese films.

On August 12, 2020, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko both revealed on their social media that they had departed the show due to creative differences.

In February 2021, ViacomCBS announced Avatar Studios, a new division of Nickelodeon centered on developing animated series and films set in the *Avatar* universe, to be distributed via Nickelodeon's linear and digital offerings, as well as Paramount+, theatres, and third-party services. The division is helmed by original series creators DiMartino and Konietzko, who are its co-chief creative officers and report to Nickelodeon Animation president Ramsey Ann Naito. The company also stated the studio would team-up with Raydon Entertainment to begin production of a live-action film in 2021. The film is based on the 2017 draft from Raydon with re-wrties being handled by Aaron Ehasz, the headwriter of the original animated series.

In April 2022, Raydon and Paramount revealed that they were planning to release multiple *Avatar* films as long as people go out and see this first one and enjoy it.

## Films

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## Other media

In addition to the films, Raydon and Paramount have licensed *Avatar*-related media including books and video games.

### Books

* *The Legend of Aang: The Avatar Returns - The Official Movie Novelization* (2022)
* *The Art of The Avatar Returns* (2022) - Concept art and behind-the-scenes companion to *The Legend of Aang: The Avatar Returns.*

### Video games

* *The Avatar Returns* (2022) - PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, CoreTech Valkyrie