Will Avatar: The Last Airbender Get a Season 2 on Netflix?

At long last, a new Avatar has arrived—and this one, anyway, took less than 100 years to emerge from hibernation. Nearly two decades after the premiere of the original animated series—and 14 years after the much-maligned film adaptation The Last Airbender—the latest live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender has landed on Netflix to the weight of enormous expectations. Among those expectations are that the series itself will continue; mere hours after the series dropped on February 22 (and, along with it, the critics’ review embargo), fans are already hoping that the show has garnered enough goodwill to earn the streamer’s oft-fickle go-ahead. As we await further news from Netflix, here’s what we know so far about Avatar’s future.

Will there be a season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix?

The eight episodes that comprise season 1 cover much of the same ground laid by the original cartoon’s first season, albeit with tweaks to the details and timeline. (As showrunner Albert Kim told Entertainment Weekly in January, “We had to sometimes unravel storylines and remix them in a new way to make sense for a serialized drama.”) It stands to reason, then, that the live-action series would continue to trace the original’s path with additional seasons.

Although Netflix has yet to officially give a thumbs-up for season 2, both the cast and crew seem to anticipate the news any day now. Per EW, Kim expects a time jump might be necessary. (More on that below.) And as actress Kiawentiio, who plays Katara, put it in an ELLE.com interview, “I definitely hope for season 2 and season 3—I think we all really want that for this show. I am proud of what we’ve done for season one, but I think there’s just so much to look forward to as well. In the animated series, it just gets better and better each season. So there’s a lot of scenes that I’d love to recreate and relationships that I’d love to see.”

What will season 2 be about?

As in the animated series, season 1 follows Avatar Aang’s history and awakening, his training in the traditions of water-bending, and the bond he develops with water-bender Katara and her brother Sokka as a result. (Along the way, we also meet important characters such as Azula, angst king Zuko, and his ponytail.) Season 2 continues the hero’s journey as Aang switches focus to earth-bending; season 2 of the live-action series would likely follow a similar arc, introducing characters such as fan-favorite Toph, the greatest earth-bender in the world. (And don’t you dunderheads ever forget it!) As of right now, the role of Toph has not yet been cast.

Will there be a time jump between seasons 1 and 2? Why?

There’s ample evidence a time jump will be necessary. Filming a live-action series presents logistical problems an animated show doesn’t—namely, that the actors get older. “All three seasons of the animated series essentially take place in the course of one calendar year,” Kim told Entertainment Weekly in January 2024. “There was no way we could do that. So we had to design this first season, especially, to accommodate the possibility of some time elapsing between the first and the second season.”

In the animated series, Sozin’s Comet presents itself as a “ticking clock,” Kim says. (In Avatar lore, the Fire Nation’s benders reach the height of their powers when the comet enters the atmosphere, once every century. With the comet arcing closer to home at the start of season 1, Aang and his friends have only a year to complete his training before the Fire Nation would be strong enough to finish their total domination of the world.) Kim continued, “We removed that particular ticking clock from our show for now because we couldn’t know exactly how old our actors would be for the subsequent seasons. We definitely thought about that going into season 1 so that we can accommodate for puberty, adolescence, time passing—all of those fun things that happen to real-life human beings that don’t happen to animated characters.”

A sophomore chapter would represent an opportunity for the cast to demonstrate how not only how they’ve grown off-screen, but also how they’ve matured as actors, Kiawentiio told ELLE.com. “I was learning [Katara] as we went,” she said, “and I feel like you could see that on screen—when I kind of sank into her character. So I feel like the Katara that we see in [episodes] 7 and 8 is what I would hope to bring to next season. As we all know from the original series, she becomes so much more confident in herself and in her capabilities to stand on her own, so I think that’s something that I’d love to focus on for season 2.”

Who will be in the cast for season 2?

Expect the major players to make a return, including Kiawentiio as Katara; Gordon Cormier as Aang; Ian Ousley as Sokka; Dallas James Liu as Zuko; Elizabeth Yu as Azula; Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai; Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh; Maria Zhang as Suki; Utkarsh Ambudkar as King Bumi; Ken Leung as Commander Zhao; Momona Tamada as Ty Lee; and Thalia Tran as Mai; among others. But a few important newcomers will be announced, should season 2 proceed as hoped—and most anticipated among them will be Toph, the blind bandit herself.

This story will be updated.