Paramount Is Both The Best And Worst Thing To Happen To Avatar: The Last Airbender

With its spectacular combination of epic fantasy, nuanced storytelling, compelling characters, mature themes, and stunning martial arts action, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is one of the greatest shows of the 21st century.

It's been over 20 years since "The Last Airbender" premiered, and since then we've had dozens of books and comics, two live-action remakes, two sequel series, and one sequel movie. In theory, a great time to be an "Avatar" fan, right? In 2026 alone we've had the very first feature film animation in the franchise, with the return of Aang and his friends as young adults in a brand new adventure. And most recently we got "Avatar: Seven Havens," the first new series in over a decade, with the next avatar in the cycle – actually, two Avatars.

If that wasn't enough, Avatar Studios and Paramount just announced at NYCC (via Variety) that "Seven Havens" has been renewed up to season 4. That means there is no worry that Paramount will just cancel the show without letting the story finish, as it will run for about the same length as the previous two shows. Avatar Studios also revealed we are getting another Avatar show, "Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos." a prequel series about one of Aang's predecessors, and one of the most tragic Avatars we know of.

All of this sounds great, right? Well, yes, but it's also rather bittersweet considering Paramount is making the right moves while also treating this franchise abhorrently until just a few days ago. In many ways, Paramount is the best thing to happen to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" — and also the worst

Sure, Paramount is doing a lot to keep the "Avatar" franchise alive and well, expanding it with new shows and actually using Avatar Studios for the reason it was created — to make more "Avatar."

But let's not forget how the studio ruined the release of the feature film "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender," delaying the film a bunch of times before downgrading it from getting a theatrical release to just getting dumped on Paramount+. Then it waited until the last possible minute to release even an iota of marketing for the film. The first trailer for "Avatar Aang" didn't drop until the same month as the film's release, after the entire feature had already leaked online months earlier without a word from the studio.

The same thing happened with "Avatar: Seven Havens," the first new show in the franchise in over a decade. The show was officially announced in 2025, with a two-season pick-up at Nickelodeon to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the franchise. After a single teaser image was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2025, not a single piece of further information dropped until a year later, when we got both the first trailer for "Seven Havens" and an announcement that it would be released just 2 months later.

Indeed, Paramount has done incredibly little to build anticipation for these shows beyond the absolute bare minimum. But it's also better than what happened the last time we got an "Avatar" show.

As badly as Paramount may have been handling the "Avatar" franchise, it's not entirely butchering their release as bad as Nickelodeon did with "The Legend of Korra." The first season of "The Legend of Korra" was released on Nickelodeon on Saturday mornings — you know, like a cartoon. But for the second season, Nickelodeon moved the show to Friday evenings without much marketing or explanation. Sure, the change made sense considering the show's adult themes and content, but when you don't really give a heads-up, ratings will fall, which they did.

Then, in season 3, Nickelodeon once again changed the release schedule of "The Legend of Korra," this time releasing two episodes at a time. When ratings started to drop, the channel pulled the show entirely off the air and moved the last five episodes of the season to digital platforms only. Again, this was done without any warning whatsoever.

The fourth and final season of the show was released entirely on the Nick website and other digital platforms in 2014. Sure, some episodes were released on TV, but only the second half of the season — again, a development that happened without marketing.

So, yes. Paramount has made missteps, and the studio is definitely not friends of animation. That being said, "Avatar" fans have seen worse, and the news of more "Seven Havens" and a new "Avatar" show does give hope that things will improve.