Let’s all watch and judge the leaked pilot of the Last Airbender follow-up series, Legend Of Korra
It’s been a long wait for The Legend Of Korra, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s follow-up to their hit animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Korra was first announced in 2010, with the prediction that it’d be on TV by mid-2011, but as producer/writers DiMartino and Konietzko expanded their plans for the series from a 12-episode miniseries to a 26-episode, two-season run, the release date was pushed back to 2012. The show is currently scheduled to première on Nickelodeon on April 14.
But the first episode has already leaked to an anime-dubbing site called Dubhappy.com, which posted it for public viewing. It’s unclear whether this is a true unintended leak or part of a plan to pick up early buzz among the animation fanatics most likely to appreciate it/judge the ever-living hell out of it, but Last Airbender fans won’t care either way, given how high anticipation for the show has been and how eager they are to explain to the Internet why it isn’t as good as the last series. In fact, the inevitable fan backlash has already begun, with people whining on Dubhappy’s comment boards because Korra doesn’t center on the same characters, features a technology level that Avatar didn’t have, and generally isn’t exactly the same as the previous series, while somehow also regurgitating the old plot in a fresh, new, different way.
Avatar: The Last Airbender originally ran on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008, telling a complete story in three acts over three seasons, and picking up a dedicated adult audience as well as a kid following. The show takes place in a world where martial artists called “benders” use innate power and traditional training to control earth, water, air, or fire. Meanwhile, the Avatar, a bender with the ability to control all four elements, attempts to keep the world and the benders in balance. The follow-up series takes place around 70 years later, with most of the first series’ principals apparently dead, including the first series’ Avatar, Aang, whose power has passed into a reckless teenage girl named Korra. There’s a whole lot more going on in this series, but a lot of it is summed up in the pilot, which you can now watch for yourself:
Not yet leaked: M. Night Shyamalan’s script for The Last Airbender 2, the sequel to his widely reviled, Razzie-winning The Last Airbender, which adapted the first season of the TV show to live-action film in 2010. He’s reportedly written that script, but has been unable to get the film green-lit, and has since moved on to another project, now filming and set for release in 2013. We look forward to judging that, too.