Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is finally coming back to Netflix

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Photo: Nickelodeon

Earlier this week, Netflix made its regular announcement of what movies and TV shows would be coming to the streaming service next month. Though the impressive list of May arrivals includes the likes of Uncut Gems and the final season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, it appears there was one title missing. On Thursday, one of Netflix's many official Twitter accounts announced that an old friend will be making its way back to the platform on May 15: Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Originally broadcast on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008, Avatar: The Last Airbender was co-created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and takes place in a medieval fantasy realm (loosely based on Asia) where certain people are capable of controlling one of the four classic elements: Water, earth, fire, or air. Only one person at a time is capable of using all four; that person is called the Avatar, and when the Avatar dies they are reincarnated into the next generation so there's always someone around to keep balance in the world. The titular protagonist of A:TLA is Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen) who was frozen in a block of ice for 100 years after his people, the airbenders, were wiped out in a genocidal attack. Aang now finds himself in a world consumed by war, and must work with friends like Katara (Mae Whitman) and Sokka (Jack DeSena) to end the war and restore balance.

A:TLA was followed a few years later by the sequel series Legend of Korra, which focused on Aang's successor as the Avatar (while A:TLA used to stream on Netflix, Korra has never streamed anywhere, though it is available for rent or purchase on Amazon Video). Though A:TLA was adapted into a live-action film by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010, Netflix announced in 2018 that they would be producing a new live-action series run by DiMartino and Konietzko. There haven't been many updates on that production yet, but soon the animated series will be available to any Netflix users who want to catch up or refresh themselves.

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