Avatar: The Last Airbender renewal avoids the trap of using young actors

It really wasn’t that surprising to find out that Avatar: The Last Airbender had been renewed. The Netflix series soared to the top of the streaming charts after its release on Thursday, Feb. 22. The renewal decision is great news for shows that use child actors and gets the series out of a potential trap.

TVLine reports that the series has been renewed for two seasons. On top of that, the third season is going to be the last. Fans can now rest easy knowing that the writers have time to tell a full story. By knowing the third season is the last, the writers won’t end up with a cliffhanger that is left unresolved.

However, this renewal is also great news for a trap that a lot of shows with child actors end up in. We just have to look at the problem Stranger Things has.

Avatar: The Last Airbender will be able to film seasons back to back

Child actors age quickly. It makes it very hard to believe that only a short space of time has passed in the series. If a show is going to have child actors to start with, it needs to follow the time for the actor in filming within the show, and this can cause storytelling problems.

The best way around it is to make sure filming can happen as soon as possible. With a two-season renewal, writing and filming can happen back to back. This helps to get rid of the problem of Gordon Cormier, especially, getting too old to realistically portray the 12-year-old Aang.

However, there are questions about the time within the series to make Aang’s storyline realistic. The episode counts for both seasons haven’t been confirmed, but if they’re eight episodes each like the first season, it means 16 episodes for Aang to learn how to bend all of the elements to take on his role as the Avatar. The first season moved relatively slowly, which means the story’s timeline isn’t all that realistic.

It’s hard to balance all the needs of the story and the aging actors, especially when it comes to a Netflix series!

Avatar: The Last Airbender is available to stream on Netflix.