Avatar: The Last Airbender Masters The Elements, Gets Seasons 2 And 3 On Netflix

"Avatar: The Last Airbender" had as much going for it as it had against it. On the negative side, there were plenty of reasons to be concerned for the second attempt at a live-action remake of the beloved and acclaimed animated series. The original creators departed the show for creative differences, and one of the main characters, Sokka, had a major character trait and arc removed. On the plus side, Netflix had a lot of goodwill from the delightful "One Piece" live-action remake that promised to break the curse regarding American live-action adaptations of animated shows. 

But everything changed when the live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" actually debuted. 

The remake has an identity crisis, with a mismatch of tones that tries to appeal to kids but also adults. It's a show so inconsistent that Zuko's scar was reduced to barely a birthmark because, as he told Nerdist, "We're going to have young kids watching the show." And yet, those same kids are perfectly fine watching the genocide of an entire people, and multiple characters being burned to death.

Still, the remake struck a chord with audiences, perhaps so desperate to get anything even remotely better than Shyamalan movie that they were willing to make this the number one show on Netflix in several countries (according to Netflix, anyway). 

Now, for better or worse, the streaming service is getting to do what Shyamalan could not, and take a stab at bringing arguably the most beloved character of the original show to live-action: Toph Beifong. That's right, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is getting a second season — and also a third. Hopefully this time, they remember that the seasons are titled after elements in the order Aang is supposed to learn them and not just forget until the last second.

Netflix announced that it will bring Aang's story to a close, adapting the entirety of the original 2005 cartoon in live-action in order to conclude the story across two more seasons. 

The first season had disastrous problems, with our own Jeremy Mathai's review calling the live-action "The Last Airbender" iteration "a greatest-hits collection with little of the heart, humor, and soul fans came to expect." Regardless, the knowledge of having two more seasons can potentially help the writing team break down the narrative more easily and find more cohesion in the storytelling — and hopefully give us some proper character arcs this time.

More importantly, the two-season renewal should hopefully help with the mismatch of tones. Seasons 2 and 3 of the cartoon are significantly darker and more mature, and they bring forth a lot more serialization and lore than the first season. With any luck, the live-action remake can at least capture some of that without also losing the joy and fun of the original, or the moments of downtime that made the big moments shine brighter.

Worst case scenario, we still have an "Avatar" animated movie coming out in 2025 to look forward to.