Avatar: The Last Airbender has made a comeback in recent years, with fans all over the world rediscovering the program and all of its charms following Netflix’s announcement of a new Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series. Fans of the original cartoon program from all over the world have been curious, if not cautiously optimistic, about this remake after the previous attempt failed miserably.
Originally planned to feature 10 one-hour-long episodes, the series will now have 8 episodes, and the first season of Netflix’s impending live-action version will have a large budget as well. However, this huge budget might not be as big as the previous successful live-action series on Netflix, the adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s masterpiece One Piece.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Live-Action Budget
The Netflix adaptation of Avatar was first revealed in 2018, and while it has taken some time to get started, the series began production in late 2021. Filming on the series began in June 2018 and continued till June 2022, demonstrating the significant effort put into bringing this popular animated world to life in a live-action manner.
The series stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Zuko, Elizabeth Yu as Azula, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai. Netflix is not skimping on spending to bring the series to life. The show is reportedly budgeted at USD 120 million, with each episode costing almost around $15 million.
This sure is a big-budget series for Netflix, and spending such a huge amount on a live-action is no joke. However, this still doesn’t come close to the budget the streaming platform spent on the live-action series which was an adaptation of the anime and manga of the world-famous One Piece.
Read More: The Last Airbender Live Action Cast: Which Actors Play Aang and Suki in Netflix’s Series?
One Piece Live-Action Budget Was Significantly More
Netflix’s Avatar costs $15 million per episode, and with eight episodes, it comes out to $120 million for the entire series. Netflix’s decision to budget Avatar in the same range as its big-screen predecessor demonstrates the streaming platform’s desire to give Avatar a properly huge scale. However, this pales in comparison to the cash Netflix set aside for One Piece live-action. According to sources, the budget for One Piece is $18 million per episode, bringing the total cost of the eight-episode season to roughly $144 million.
One Piece is one of Netflix’s most expensive shows (second only to Stranger Things), with a higher per-episode budget than HBO’s Game of Thrones or Disney’s The Mandalorian. Nonetheless, Avatar still has a very good budget and if used rightly Netflix may have another successful live-action series in its hands.
