Avatar: The Last Airbender star regales the growth in shows legacy post COVID

When Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired on Nickelodeon between 2005 and 2008, it stood out as more than just another animated series. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the series followed the journey of Aang, a young Air Nomad and the last Avatar, tasked with mastering all four elements to restore balance to a world torn by war. Avatar: The Last Airbender soon became a series that was widely popular among a whole generation of viewers.

More than a decade later, during COVID, the show was given a home on Netflix, where audiences could stream it. That allowed them to rewatch a show they had fallen in love with a decade ago, and it reached a new height of popularity.

In 2024, a new live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, having the same story, was released on Netflix. At San Diego Comic-Con, cast members Dante Basco and Dee Bradley Baker, of the Netflix show, spoke with ScreenRant about the original show’s reawakening during and post-COVID time and how it reshaped their view of its legacy.

Avatar: The Last Airbender stars in the original show's growing legacy

The renewed interest in Avatar: The Last Airbender was due to several reasons, like audiences being stuck at home during an unfortunate time. While the Netflix live-action adaptation of the animated series, developed by Albert Kim, was released just last year in 2024, the original show received quite a bit of love during COVID.

Basco described the show’s Netflix revival as something unique and unprecedented. As he told ScreenRant,

"I think it was a Netflix hit, because I think it had the original fanfare of what happened, in the beauty of the show. But then, when COVID hit, and then it became No. 1 on Netflix, it did something that never happened before, because we never had streaming before, never Netflix for it, never had a show that had been done 10-15 years ago becoming the No. 1 show in the world during this new era. And then, as soon as we went to the first Comic-Con after Netflix opened up, me and, like, Hayden Christensen were the longest lines in New York Comic Con. It was like, "You're on the No. 1 show in the world. How did that happen?" So, when that happened, it was one of those things that had never happened before where, because of Netflix, it just became a phenomenon again."

On the other hand, Baker told ScreenRant,

"But it was at a moment that the world really felt like it was falling apart, and the world of Avatar is a world that makes sense, and there's humanity and there's morality. There's overcoming adversity, redemption, finding your power. There are all these things that the world needs that seem to be dissolving around us right there when COVID hit. Happily, the platform of Netflix made that available, suddenly, with the celestial jukebox of entertainment that we have now, so that everybody could suddenly dive in, and it really gives this sustenance that people need, I think, to aspire to a world that they want to live in."

Beyond the characters and storytelling, the moral of Avatar: The Last Airbender left a mark. Basco recounted a fan interaction at New York Comic Con. As he told ScreenRant,

“To your point, what's crazy, that New York Comic Con, we were there, and it didn't really appear to me what was going on. There was so much happening, and this guy, this kid, comes up at a signing, and he's like, "I grew up with you on Nick, man, we all grew up," and I was like, "That's great." He goes, "No, you don't understand. You programmed our generation." I said, "What?" He goes, "You programmed our generation." I go, "What does that mean?" He goes, "Why do you think we're the generation that brought back protests, the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter? We're trying to get the world back in balance." And the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I was like, "I understand why Avatar is the No. 1 show in the world."

With more animated projects and spinoffs in development, Avatar: The Last Airbender proves that its message will continue to resonate for years to come. In a world that still needs a balance, the show's story feels more relevant than ever before.

Both the original and the new 2024 Avatar: The Last Airbender are streaming on Netflix.

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