Bryan Konietzko's Blog

Bryke is back at Nickelodeon in a big way.

⚡️💙⬇️💙⚡️

Mike and I are heading up a new studio dedicated to expanding the Avatarverse. Here’s our quote from EW.com (link for the full article):

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since we created Avatar: The Last Airbender. But even after all that time, there are still many stories and time periods in Aang’s world that we are eager to bring to life. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing community of passionate fans that enjoys exploring the Avatarverse as much as we do. And with this new Avatar Studios venture we have an unparalleled opportunity to develop our franchise and its storytelling on a vast scale, in myriad exciting ways and mediums. We are exceedingly grateful to Brian Robbins and Ramsey Naito for their enthusiasm and respect for the Avatar property and us as its stewards. From the start, they’ve supported our ambitious plans and created a positive, proactive environment for us. We’re excited to be back at Nickelodeon where Avatar began, doing what we do best in the biggest way possible. We can’t wait to build the great teams and productions to make all of this fantasy a reality.” – Bryan Konietzko & Michael DiMartino

#avatarstudios #nickelodeon #avatarthelastairbender #atla #thelegendofkorra #lok #bryke #michaeldimartino #bryankonietzko

Bryke is back at Nickelodeon in a big way.

⚡️💙⬇️💙⚡️

Mike and I are heading up a new studio dedicated to expanding the Avatarverse. Here’s our quote from EW.com (link for the full article):

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since we created Avatar: The Last Airbender. But even after all that time, there are still many stories and time periods in Aang’s world that we are eager to bring to life. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing community of passionate fans that enjoys exploring the Avatarverse as much as we do. And with this new Avatar Studios venture we have an unparalleled opportunity to develop our franchise and its storytelling on a vast scale, in myriad exciting ways and mediums. We are exceedingly grateful to Brian Robbins and Ramsey Naito for their enthusiasm and respect for the Avatar property and us as its stewards. From the start, they’ve supported our ambitious plans and created a positive, proactive environment for us. We’re excited to be back at Nickelodeon where Avatar began, doing what we do best in the biggest way possible. We can’t wait to build the great teams and productions to make all of this fantasy a reality.” – Bryan Konietzko & Michael DiMartino

#avatarstudios #nickelodeon #avatarthelastairbender #atla #thelegendofkorra #lok #bryke #michaeldimartino #bryankonietzko

Here’s the new cover Joaquim Dos Santos @2-cents drew and I colored for the upcoming 2nd edition of The Legend of Korra: Art of the Animated Series: Book One from @darkhorsecomics . It was SO MUCH FUN to collaborate with my old buddy Joaquim again. 🔥💙🔥

Here’s the new cover Joaquim Dos Santos @2-cents drew and I colored for the upcoming 2nd edition of The Legend of Korra: Art of the Animated Series: Book One from @darkhorsecomics . It was SO MUCH FUN to collaborate with my old buddy Joaquim again.

Before I get to the crux of this statement, I would like to
make it clear that I am very aware and appreciative of the fact that I am in an
exceedingly fortunate position, and that the following issues are indeed good
problems to have — even more so now that we are in the grips of a global
pandemic and a cratering economy which have left millions unemployed. With that
crucial context, here is the big news from my little world.

Michael DiMartino and I recently chose to leave Netflix’s
live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the series he and
I created together in 2002. We will have no involvement in the project moving
forward. This is probably the most difficult decision I have ever made. But
there is no doubt in my mind it was absolutely the right choice.

When Netflix
brought me on board to run this series alongside Mike two years ago, they made
a very public promise to support our vision. Unfortunately, there was no
follow-through on that promise. Though I got to work with some great
individuals, both on Netflix’s side and on our own small development team, the
general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and
unsupportive environment.

To be clear, this was not a simple matter of us not getting
our way. Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to
come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and
integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them. However, we
ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide
the direction of the series.

Though I am profoundly disappointed by how things turned
out, there are wonderfully talented people who are still working on the series,
some of whom Mike and I personally hired and got to know well during our time
on the project. We worked very hard together towards a shared dream of how
special this adaptation could be. I want to see them employed, and I hope they
get the chance to do their best work on the series. Perhaps the team that
remains might still be able to make something fans of the original and an
entirely new audience can enjoy.

By and large, I have an incredibly charmed career and I am
very grateful for it. And I am enormously lucky for the amazing global
community of fans that has grown around the shows Mike and I have created and
run together. I will continue to be deeply involved in the Avatar
universe, telling the stories my partner and I want to tell in the way we want
to tell them. I will put my time, energy, and talents towards the projects that
give me the most fulfilment, and where I am afforded trust and respect. Life is
too short to do otherwise.

– Bryan Konietzko

I recently did this new cover for the second edition of Dark Horse’s Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series hardcover book, which will be released on November 24, 2020. This is a redo of a DVD cover I did ages ago. I always liked the drawing but was never happy with how cramped the composition was and how poorly I colored it. It was fun to take a crack at it again. The second edition will have a few new things in it. Hope you enjoy!

Navajo Nation Covid-19 Relief Avatarverse Charity Drawings. This week’s auction ends Saturday.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/avatar-navajo-covid-relief/

http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

Donation

Navajo Nation Covid-19 Relief Avatarverse Charity Drawings. This week’s auction ends Saturday.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/avatar-navajo-covid-relief/

http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

Donation

Mike and I had lunch yesterday with Michaela Murphy @michaelamostly aka Jessie Flower aka MELON LORD ⚡️🍈⚡️ the legendary voice of Toph, Meng, and Young Suyin. We’ve known Michaela since she was a wee kid, and now she’s a full-grown adult person. It was really wonderful catching up. She had some great insights on being a child actor that will surely benefit our future cast. Keep an eye out for her as she TAKES OVER THE WORLD.

Mike and I had lunch yesterday with Michaela Murphy @michaelamostly aka Jessie Flower aka MELON LORD ⚡️