'Avatar: The Last Airbender' creators pull out of live-action Netflix series

Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series will now proceed without original show creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The duo, who were set to be showrunners and executive producers for the upcoming series, announced the news on Wednesday.

Both express how tough it was to decide to leave the project, how excited they were to work with Netflix, and how they did not feel, after nearly two years on the show, that their vision would be honored. They also acknowledged the relative smallness of their creative setbacks against larger problems in the world — an Aang move if ever there was one.

"When Netflix brought me on board to run this series alongside Mike two years ago, they made a very public promise to support our vision," Konietzko wrote in an Instagram post. "Unfortunately, there was no follow-through on that promise. Though I got to work with some great individuals... the general handling of the project created what I felt like was a negative and unsupportive environment."

"Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good," DiMartino wrote in his own letter. "It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. 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 Avatar live-action series was announced in Sept. 2018, with much excitement from fans that DiMartino and Konietzko, who led the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon, would return to the helm. The pair released a statement through Netflix at the time, expressing excitement to revisit the show with a "culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast" (a direct hit at M. Night Shyamalan's cautionary tale of a 2012 feature). The series will continue with Rideback's Dan Lin and Nickelodeon producing.

"We have complete respect and admiration for Michael and Bryan and the story that they created in the Avatar animated series," a Netflix spokesperson told Mashable. "Although they have chosen to depart the live action project, we are confident in the creative team and their adaptation."

Avatar started streaming on Netflix in May 2020, reinvigorating the fandom and bringing in new audiences while building hype for the live-action series. The sequel series, Legend of Korra, hits Netflix Aug. 14.