Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko decided that they wanted to draw from Asian cultures to flesh out the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is something that resonated with fans immensely, which prompted DiMartino to employ a similar approach for his novel series, Rebel Genius.
Speaking with The Mary Sue, the producer/author revealed how Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s unique approach to fantasy fiction helped him build the world of his own novels, which inturn allowed him to explore fantasy from the lens of a culture that had no place in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Rebel Genius allowed Miachel Dante DiMartino to take inspiration from the Italian Renaissance
Rebel Genius almost feels like it’s a cross between Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and the X-Men. Set in a world where art has power, certain people have small bird-like creatures called Geniuses, which are the manifestation of one’s creative powers and illegal to posses. These people gather in secret to channel their art and learn sacred geometry.
In this novel, Micahel Dante DiMartino took direct inspiration from the Itallian Renaissance. Speaking with The Mary Sue, he said:
I guess this is where Avatar’s legacy creeps in again! After drawing on Asian culture and understanding how that resonated with so many people, I knew there was a hunger for seeing fantasy worlds that reflected the diversity of our planet, not just a small corner of it.
The idea was to get out of the mindset that secondary fantasy worlds need only look at Medieval and English settings, which has found a lot of support in fantasy writers of today.
A lot of fantasy fiction, be it Avatar: The Last Airbender or novels like Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, has been looking at East Asian inspirations for their secondary fantasy worlds. Further, there is also a renewed focus on the cultures of the global South, especially in the wake of films like Black Panther.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was the respose to Nickleodeon’s need for a Harry Potter-like story
In an interview, Bryan Konietzko revealed that Nicklodeon had originally asked him and DiMartino to craft a story that was more reminiscent of Harry Potter. However, due to concerns about the lack of a hard magic system in the Wizarding World, Konietzko and DiMartino decided to the make the Avatar: The Last Airbender, which broke a lot of tropes that were a part of conventional fantasy settings.
With Avatar Studios marhcing ahead in full force, Paramount has made it clear that they wish to turn Avatar: The Last Airbender into an IP as big as the Wizarding World or even Star Wars. Avatar: The Last Airbedner expand into a sprawling world, that looks at individual characater stories, but also at the future and hisotry of world as a whole.
