Is Avatar Ready to Be a Modern Blockbuster Franchise?

This week marks the 20th anniversary of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon’s action-fantasy anime that became one of the network’s biggest shows back in the day. And what better way to celebrate a momentous occasion than to finally reveal a new show—Seven Havens, a 2D series with a two-season greenlight and involvement from franchise co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Like the previous shows, Havens will center on another young Avatar coming into their own, in this case a young Earthbender who finds herself inheriting a stained mantle after a cataclysm involving her predecessor Korra has made people wary of anyone with the title. We’ve known for a few years now that Paramount would very much like to keep Avatar going as a multimedia franchise. Generally, the franchise never really went away, even as the gap between series was sizable: along with Netflix’s separate (but ongoing) live-action remake, countless comics and graphic novels have covered what happened next ... Read full article.