If you’re one of the many people taking advantage of Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s timely return to Netflix while stuck at home, you’ll probably remember that the streaming giant has been developing a live-action remake of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s classic Nickelodeon series. With the two confirmed to be returning as showrunners alongside composer Jeremy Zuckerman, chances that the reimagining will live up to the source material seem good, and now we’ve heard something that’ll surely help to shovel more coal into this hype train’s engine.
According to sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Netflix is doing an Extraction sequel and a Justice League Dark show is coming to HBO Max, both of which were correct – the upcoming remake will be the streaming site’s most expensive original program yet. What that will mean in terms of actual figures, we can’t be certain of, but the company has kept a famously loose hand on the budgets for its original series and films and we’re told they’re going all out with this one.
Most notable among their lavish productions are Altered Carbon, with a rumored budget of about $80 million according to unofficial estimates, and The Crown, with a budget of between $100 million and $150 million for its first two seasons alone. If Avatar: The Last Airbender will indeed be blessed with such an expensive production as to surpass either of these shows, it may be able to portray its fantasy world just as vividly as its hand-drawn source material.
Of course, this information is subject to change as productions can be altered and budgets can be cut, but despite that possibility and the current lack of a definitive release date, Avatar: The Last Airbender seems like it might be one of the few worthy live-action adaptations of cartoons.
