Remember Nickelodeon's OG animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender"?
Yeah, that gem.
Well, it's getting the Netflix treatment, and with it comes some tweaks, especially for a certain character named "Sokka."
Netflix's live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series is getting a makeover, and the showrunner is spilling the tea on some character revamps.
Brace yourselves, folks!
Showrunner Albert Kim revealed to IGN that Sokka didn't quite "translate" to the live-action adaptation.
Described primarily as the source of comedic relief in the original series, Sokka often dished out commentary on gender roles. He mainly targeted his sister Katara, who, within the storyline, was expected to adhere to certain societal norms, such as performing domestic tasks.
There are certain roles I think that Katara did in the cartoon that we didn't necessarily also do here. I mean, I don't want to really get into a lot of that, but some gender issues that didn't quite translate from the cartoon.
Netflix wanted to guard against him being perceived as outright unlikable. Yeah. So we had to guard against that kind of stuff.
...
And so, those are things that aren't really changing a character as so much as updating them a little bit. And in terms of plot points, yeah, there was a lot of things that we, in the writer's room, we put down, 'These are the mileposts that we're going to hit.' ... We knew where the big story would begin and end.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Ian Ousley, taking on the role of Sokka, and actress Kiawentiio Tarbell, portraying Katara, went into the changes made to the characters' perceptions of gender roles.
Ousley wanted to make sure Sokka stayed funny, but he explained that there is "more weight with realism in every way."
There are entire Reddit threads about [Sokka's sexism], discussing how the original Sokka (prior to his character journey) would make remarks like ‘Girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting.'
Tarbell agrees that live-action translates differently from animated kids' shows.
I feel like we also took out the element of how sexist [Sokka] was. I feel like there were a lot of moments in the original show that were iffy.
I wonder what the original creators of the animated series think about people perceiving Sokka as sexist. According to IGN, they are no longer involved with the reboot.
Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, the original creators, dedicated two years to working on the live-action adaptation for Netflix. However, they surprised fans by leaving the project due to creative differences, leaving Kim as the sole showrunner.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kim admitted that continuing without them was "absolutely" daunting.
I've got to admit, the live-action version looks pretty cool, but how will changing Sokka's personality and character flaw affect the story's development?
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