The New Avatar: The Last Airbender Show Is Finally Here. How Does It Stack Up to Its Predecessors?

This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens .

It’s been a long time coming, but the beloved animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender is back, ( yes, again ), this time with a new series, Avatar: Seven Havens . The original show—which aired from 2005–2008, followed by a sequel, The Legend of Korra , from 2012–2014—is set in a fictional world where people are gifted with the ability to control, or “bend,” nature’s four elements. Despite its popularity among its legions of dedicated fans, the Avatar: The Last Airbender (aka ATLA ) franchise has struggled over the years. The Legend of Korra proved divisive for reasons both rational and irrational. ATLA creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko pulled out of a number of live-action adaptations of the IP, dissatisfied with the creative direction of the projects. When the series landed on Netflix during COVID lockdown, reinvigorating demand for more stories in the Avatar world, Nickelodeon finally established Avatar Studios, a new content division expressly designed to create new works in the world of ATLA . Avatar Studios promised a number of future releases, including films—the first of which, a sequel film about adult Avatar Aang taking place between the events of ATLA and Korra , was infamously leaked online —and more iterations of the series, with each new installment following a new Avatar. The long-awaited fruit of that journey, Seven Havens , has now debuted with its first three episodes on Paramount+ after its 2027 release date was abruptly moved up post-leak.

So, after all that mess, one question remains: How is Avatar: Seven Havens ? Is this highly anticipated sequel series as good as its predecessors, or should Avatar fans prepare themselves for diminishing returns? After screening six of the season’s 13 episodes, I can now report: It’s … certainly a series.

Avatar: Seven Havens takes place 225 years after the events of Korra , and, in that time, society’s opinions on the Avatar—the “chosen one” who can bend all four elements, and who is reincarnated over and over again to keep the world in balance—have done a complete 180. In Korra and Aang’s eras, the Avatar was seen as society’s savior from ever-impending evil and doom. In Seven Havens , however, the legend of the Avatar has been tainted by Korra, who is known by all as the person to blame for what happened during an unexplained event called the Cataclysm, which shattered both the physical and spirit worlds. The Cataclysm led to society forming the seven different Havens, protected by a bending Brigade that trains young benders to volunteer as defenders of their home.

Our story centers around Pavi (Saheli Khan), a 9-year-old girl and amputee who, when we first meet her, is unhoused and roaming the streets of Ellora with her pet cat-monkey, Geet (Dee Bradley Baker). Pavi, aware that she can bend all four elements, is pretty sure that she’s the Avatar, but is in denial about it, for fear of persecution.