Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, creators of the critically acclaimed Nickelodeon animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” have abruptly exited Netflix’s upcoming live-action remake.
Both were attached as executive producers and showrunners and have been with the project for nearly two years, but say they’re exiting because they could not “control the creative direction of the series”.
In an open letter posted on DiMartino’s website, he says Netflix is still going ahead with the series and says it: “has the potential to be good…. 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.”
The pair had hoped to go as close to the animated series as possible. Fans of the original animated series have been burned before, the disastrous M. Night Shyamalan-helmed live-action film almost destroying the franchise.
