The Legend of Korra

The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, initially titled Avatar: Legend of Korra, is an upcoming American television series set in the Avatar universe as a spin-off of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is expected to air on Nickelodeon sometime in 2012, but no concrete air date has been given. The series is currently under production and is expected to run for two seasons and a total of twenty-six episodes. The co-creators of the original series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, will personally write all of the episodes to allow for a tighter storyline.

The new series will take place seventy years after the end of the Avatar: The Last Airbender story arc, with new characters and settings. The protagonist of the new series, Korra, the Avatar after Aang, is a hot-headed and rebellious young woman from the Southern Water Tribe who is "ready to take on the world". The series will follow Korra as she faces an anti-bender revolt while mastering the art of Airbending from Aang and Katara's son, Tenzin.

Storyline
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After the conclusion of the War, Aang and Zuko brought people from the four nations together and founded the United Republic, creating Republic City, a large "metropolis powered by steampunk-type technology" such as cars and motorcycles. Aang and Katara had three children, the youngest of which is Tenzin, who has been confirmed to be an Airbender. Meanwhile, Toph Bei Fong traveled extensively to teach Metalbending. After Aang's death, the next Avatar, Korra, was born to the Southern Water Tribe.

At the present time, seventy years after the end of the War, Korra is a rebellious seventeen year-old girl. As the Avatar, she has already mastered Waterbending, Earthbending and Firebending. She will learn Airbending from Aang and Katara's son Tenzin. Tenzin himself is married; Pema is his wife. Jinora, a "bookworm", and Ikki, a "motor-mouth", are his daughters while Meelo, his youngest child, is his son.

The primary and only confirmed setting is Republic City. Anti-benders called "Equalists", who oppose the art of bending, utilize techniques such as chi blocking to further their goals of revolution, led by Amon. Korra must fight rampant crime and the anti-bender revolt, assisted by two brothers, Mako, a Firebender, and Bolin, an Earthbender. She is also joined by her animal guide, Naga, and the Metalbending police force of Republic City, who are led by Toph's daughter.

Development


Although the creators of the show had planned an ending to the show, the success of Avatar: The Last Airbender caused Nickelodeon to ask for more episodes. The creators then came up with an idea of the next Avatar, this time a girl named Korra. They decided upon a female Avatar after the large audience of females of the original show and the adoration of the headstrong female characters by the female fan base, and felt it was time to have a big action franchise with a female in the lead instead of the traditional male role.

From April 2010, Nickelodeon began to hire staff for the production for the project. A title for the new mini-series, Avatar: Legend of Korra was trademarked by Nickelodeon in May 2010 and leaked by the media shortly afterward; more information was revealed in late June 2010, just prior to the release of the feature film . The new show was officially announced at the San Diego Comic Con on July 22, 2010. It is to be darker and more mature than the original show; however, the creators are not attempting to target a new audience, intending to balance mature themes with a sense of fun and adventure. At that time, it was also announced that the series would run for twelve episodes.



Also reported in July 2010 was that the mini-series will be set in an all-new setting in a familiar, but changed world. DiMartino and Konietzko stated in an interview that the world of Avatar would be "definitely changed, and evolved, and advanced, but we're very conscious of keeping the same feeling. Not totally different, but it's definitely generations later." Republic City is intended to be the only major location to avoid repeating the around-the-world adventures seen in the original series.

A change in the title of the show to The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra was unveiled in March 2011, along with an announcement that the premiere would be delayed until 2012. On March 7, 2011, part of the voice cast for the series was revealed, and on the next day, an interview with the creators was published announcing that the series had been extended by fourteen episodes, to make a total of 26 episodes for the series. Konietzko stated, "We’re really happy with that number. It allows us to focus much more closely on each episode and get a lot more craft into it."



Animation on the first twelve episodes was underway as of March 2011, with initial development and voice recording for these episodes already completed. In the interview published in March 2011, DiMartino stated, "We’ve written all the episodes. Episodes have shipped to the overseas animations studios and they’re animating away as we speak... All the vocal cast has been picked and recorded and all the scripts have been recorded." The next fourteen episodes are currently under development.

Casting
In the initial announcement of Legend of Korra in July 2010, there was no mention of the voice casting for the show. For the next seven months, such information was only disseminated by some members of the cast themselves. In an interview in August 2010, Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of Momo and Appa on Avatar: The Last Airbender, confirmed that he would be returning to voice another creature and a character, and that his daughters auditioned for a flashback scene to play five-year old Korra, and one of them received the part. The creature that he will voice is Korra's animal guide; the human role has since been stated to be a "complex" recurring character. Dante Basco stated that he would return to voice a character. He confirmed via Twitter that his role has something to do with Zuko, and stated that one of the new episodes is entitled "Skeleton in the Closet." Rob Paulsen, Eva Marie-Saint, and Richard Epcar are also stated to be involved in voice work.

The identities of several voice actors and the characters that they were voicing were revealed on March 7, 2011. The names revealed included Janet Varney as Korra, Kiernan Shipka as Jinora, Daniel Dae Kim as Hiroshi Sato, David Faustino as Mako, P.J. Byrne as Bolin, Lance Henriksen as a Lieutenant, and J.K. Simmons as Tenzin. In addition, Seychelle Gabriel, who played in the film adaptation, was revealed as the voice for a character named Asami.

Music
Jeremy Zuckerman of The Track Team has said he will 'absolutely' return to compose the music for the show during a panel at Comic-Con 2010. The Track Team stated that the music for Legend of Korra will consist of "the Roaring '20s with an Asian twist." They described it as "1920s New Orleans jazz but if it were invented in China" at the 2011 Comic-Con.

Marketing


After the original announcement in July 2010 yielded only one promotional image, that of Korra overlooking what was then tentatively named "Republic City", there was high demand for additional promotional material. After almost eight months of little official information, a piece of concept art showing the face of the main character was revealed for the first time on March 6, 2011. However, the demand for promotional material was more fully answered with a Legend of Korra panel on July 23, 2011 at the San Diego Comic-Con. The panel featured a minute-long trailer containing vistas of the updated World of Avatar and scenes of Korra in combat; artwork was also shown and a variety of plot details were revealed.

Trivia

 * Early fan interest in the series was extremely high. Before Nickelodeon confirmed that the name of the show had been changed to The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, causing the renaming of this article, over 10,000 comments and 27,000 Facebook "likes" were associated with the article.
 * The name of the series was changed from Avatar: Legend of Korra to The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra due to an issue with James Cameron's Avatar trademark applications. He wrote an 80-page script of said movie in 1994 before the completion of Titanic.
 * The design on the sides of the logo are the same as the designs on Korra's armbands.