Avatar Szeto to star in next Chronicles of the Avatar books?

(Art by Avatar News)

Avatar Szeto, the fire Avatar before Yangchen, Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and Korra, could be the main character of the next Chronicles of the Avatar novels.

In a recent interview with Nerds of Color, Chronicles of the Avatar writer F. C. Yee said he doesn’t know if he’ll be writing more books after Kyoshi and Yangchen, but “if he had his choice of what Avatar to tackle next, he named Avatar Szeto as a possible candidate.” 👀🔥

F. C. Yee introduced Avatar Szeto’s backstory in the Kyoshi books, revealing that he was born in a time of crisis in the Fire Nation due to natural disasters, plagues, and clan conflict. Instead of using his divine position as Avatar to enforce his rule, he joined the Fire Nation government as an entry-level bureaucrat and worked his way up with no special privileges until he was an advisor to the Fire Lord– that’s why he has that vizier-like hat in the few glimpses of him we see in Aang and Korra’s eras.

But as we all know, there’s more to every Avatar than their legacy, and in the Yangchen books we learn that Szeto’s life was secretly messy and “a library of intrigue in the realm of spycraft and trickery”.

His name comes from the Chinese Han dynasty title 司徒 (Sītú) meaning “Minister over the Masses”.

Avatar Kyoshi is “a source of tough love for Aang” in the live-action ATLA series

In a new interview with Cliché Magazine, live-action Kyoshi actress Yvonne Chapman (who has read the Kyoshi books) talked about her role in Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series as one of Aang and Korra’s most iconic past lives, which she filmed last year and is currently in post-production.

Here’s the full excerpt about Avatar:

In a continuation of her unquestionably badass résumé, Yvonne will also be playing Kyoshi in the upcoming adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. “I’m really curious to see what it’s going to look like. Like everybody else, I’m kind of in the dark as well. But I’m so excited to see it! The team is fantastic. Gordon Cormier, who plays Aang, is so lovely and so talented.” Fear not, way fans - this version will be shepherded faithfully with affection and care. “The showrunners and creators have such a passion for the story. They were all fans of it growing up, so there is a great deal of respect for the source material, and they’ve kept in mind the audience that is going to be watching has grown up with the show. I think it’s going to be really great, and I can’t wait to see it.” Kyoshi will be a source of tough love for Aang. “She sometimes has a different perspective from the other Avatars. She’s a very fierce person, and she is going to be able to guide Aang in what needs to be done in his circumstances. Kyoshi is going to be able to give Aang the advice that he needs to hear at the time that he needs to hear it.” Yvonne is steadily building a career playing powerful women. The next generation of kids is in safe hands with her in the spotlight.”

Avatar Studios co-head Bryan Konietzko talks about the future of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise: “Now we’re talking about doing multiple projects at the same time, including feature films.”

There’s no new info in this interview (neither anything new officially nor anything new that was an Avatar News exclusive), which is from the official ATLA YouTube channel, but I think it’s cool they got a proper camera crew to film a video!

You can watch the full 10-minute video here.

Netflix’s live-action ATLA soundtrack will use the original series’ themes!

Takeshi Furukawa, the recently-announced composer of Netflix’s live-action ATLA series, has confirmed he will be using the themes from the original series’ soundtrack!

He said:

“It is a tremendous honor to announce my involvement in Netflix’s epic live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I am truly humbled to receive stewardship of the incredible musical world and themes from the original series. We are all hard at work to elevate this amazing franchise to new heights so please stay tuned!”

In a 2021 interview with Avatar News, Jeremy Zuckerman, the composer of the original animated ATLA (2005-2008) said that while he wasn’t signed on to the live-action series, he expressed his hope that it would use his original themes.

The original cabbage merchant, James Sie, talks about reprising his role from animation to live-action and being treated like royalty on set (deserved)!

Interview by It’s Recording Time Media

Description of the opening scene of live-action ATLA

In a recent interview with studentfilmmakers.com, live-action ATLA Season 1 Episode 1&2 director Michael Goi described the cinematic magic that went into the first shot they filmed on the show! Check it out:

“On the show I am currently executive producing, directing and shooting for Netflix, Avatar: The Last Airbender, much of the show is shot on the largest virtual production stage in the world. The visual effects artists working on the volume images are the top in their field, and the reality that they can achieve is truly astounding. But I felt it was important to keep an element of unreality to make the results more organic. And so, for the very first shot on the first day of filming, which was a shot of a boat with two passengers getting swept into a massive ice cave on a wave of water and crashing into an ice shelf, I added a bit of magic: the ice cave walls were in virtual production, the ice shelf was a practical set piece, and the wave of water was a four-foot trough placed in the foreground of the camera with a split diopter filter in front of the lens. Two special effects technicians dumped buckets of water into the trough as grips and stunt riggers pulled the boat on cables across the floor. The resulting image combined the elements of different specialties to create a new reality that enhanced the fantasy of what was happening. In an early production meeting, I proposed doing the shot this way with the assurance that I had done it before. I had never done it before. It just seemed like it would work in theory. And it seemed like it would be fun.”

Based on current insider info, this is the first main scene of the show, but there are several prologue scenes before it.

New interview: Netflix’s live-action ATLA is “a stunning spectacle” of “eye candy matched with impeccable storytelling” that “hasn’t been done on TV before”

In a new interview from Variety, Netflix’s head of U.S. and Canada scripted series Peter Friedlander gave us an exciting new update on ATLA!

They’re deep in the nitty gritty of post-production right now, so official updates are rare and that makes this all the more hypeworthy. Check out the full quote below!

Variety: I’m a big “Avatar: The Last Airbender” fan and I’ve been waiting years for your version. Are we getting close to seeing something from the Netflix adaptation soon? I just want a first look.

Peter Friedlander: I think it’s going to be what you want it to be. It’s pretty special, just as an IP, it’s very special, something like “The Sandman,” and we want to handle it with deft hands for fans and to also bring new life to it in a way that both honors the original and celebrates its new iteration. It’s a stunning spectacle.

These shows are very big productions and it takes a ton of time, both on the production side and in post, so you have to respect the long journey for some of these shows to deliver what hasn’t been done on television before. And that’s what we have for a lot of these types of shows when we’re working on them, whether it’s “Avatar” or “One Piece” or “Three-Body Problem,” these are big, visual spectacles that you have to honor the process and respect that, when you’re breaking ground in visual storytelling or you’re on the visual vanguard of storytelling, that takes R&D, that takes a lot of trial and error to get it right. But that’s the intent, that’s the hope, is that you’re bringing eye candy matched with impeccable storytelling into these worlds. The journeys are long, but hopefully fruitful. Being part of these spectacle shows, each one is bespoke, each one goes on its own journey and it’s a little bit in between film and television, so you have to break the mold every time you’re working on one of them and it’s rewarding across the board when we get it right.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season One premieres on Netflix globally in 2023.