TV Avatar: The Last Airbender trailer teases Bumi, angry spirits, and the Avatar State With a month left before the anticipated series debuts, the new trailer sets the stage for the elemental fight to come. By Nick Romano Nick Romano Nick is an entertainment journalist based in New York, NY. If you like pugs and the occasional blurry photo of an action figure, follow him on Twitter @NickARomano. EW's editorial guidelines Published on January 23, 2024 11:00AM EST We're a month out from the premiere of live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, and a new trailer for the fantasy epic has us in an Avatar State...of mind. The dramatic footage sets the stage for the adaptation, while teasing additional characters making the jump from animation. Among the new reveals are glimpses at Bumi, the Earth Kingdom ruler of Omashu played by Utkarsh Ambudkar; Nyla, a creature known as a shirshu that's mounted by bounty hunter June (Arden Cho); Hei Bai, a powerful forest spirit in their non-panda, less-docile form; and Aang (Gordon Cormier) entering the all-powerful Avatar State, in which he summons the collective strength of all his past lives for devastating effects. Season 1 will begin to adapt the events of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series, which initially ran on Nickelodeon for three seasons in 2005 before spawning sequel show The Legend of Korra and a slew of companion pieces, from comics to video games. In a fantasy world inspired by ancient Asian and indigenous cultures, those born as benders have the ability to manipulate one of four natural elements: water, earth, fire, air. But the Avatar, a reincarnated being born once a lifecycle, can harness all four in order to maintain balance in the world. Aang, the young air bender, is the next Avatar, but he's been mysteriously missing for 100 years, allowing the Fire Nation to wage war for global dominance. Now that Aang has reemerged, he must rely on his new friends — water bender Katara (Kiawentiio) and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousley) of the Southern Water Tribe — if he has any hope of mastering the other elements and restoring peace to the world. Dallas Liu also stars as Prince Zuko, who is hellbent on finding the Avatar and delivering him to this father, Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). Nyla emerges in 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' with Arden Cho's June. Courtesy of Netflix The forest spirit Hei Bai in 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. Courtesy of Netflix The trailer appears to show footage of the day the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads, which was something the original series did not dramatize. Showrunner Albert Kim previously teased some of the other changes coming to the live-action adaptation. "We don't start the show the way the animated series starts," Kim told EW in an interview. "That was a conscious decision to show people this is not the animated series.... We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama. So I'm very curious to see what'll happen in terms of reaction to that." Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres on Netflix Feb. 22. Watch the trailer above. Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Related content: Avatar: The Last Airbender showrunner opens up about making series without original creators Live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender boss avoided watching M. Night Shyamalan movie See Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action cast side by side with their cartoon counterparts