Avatar: The Last Airbender Is Switching Formats Soon

Published Jul 24, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers. Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism. After 21 years since the original show began, Avatar: The Last Airbender is officially switching to a new format, and that switch is happening sooner than anticipated. Though it's been over two decades since Avatar: The Last Airbender began, the franchise is still going strong to this day. It got a sequel series in The Legend of Korra, a live-action adaptation from Netflix, and there are several other upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender movies, shows, and video games. One of those upcoming projects is going to change the format of The Last Airbender quite noticeably. The long-awaited sequel movie Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender premieres on Paramount+ tomorrow, July 25, and will be the franchise's first animated feature film. It's not the first movie, thanks to M. Night Shyamalan's universally hated live-action Last Airbender from 2010, but it is still a major first for the franchise. Another The Last Airbender sequel, however, is going to change the franchise's format in a much more meaningful way. During San Diego Comic-Con, which Screen Rant attended, Avatar Studios revealed new information about the next sequel series after The Legend of Korra titled Avatar: Seven Havens. That reveal included a new trailer for Seven Havens, a new, earlier release date, and two huge reveals about the show's format. Avatar: Seven Havens Will Be The Franchise's First Show That Won't Air On Nickelodeon Image By Joshua Fox Avatar: Seven Havens has already promised to change The Last Airbender franchise simply by existing. Seven Havens will follow the next Avatar after Korra, an Earthbender named Pavi. According to the show's description, Pavi's world is "post-apocalyptic," and the Avatar is viewed as a destroyer rather than a unifier. Pavi is tasked with saving humanity's last strongholds while also reuniting with her long-lost twin. There are several parts of Seven Havens' plot that should be new for the franchise, but its real-world circumstances are even more important. As Screen Rant learned at Comic-Con, Seven Havens will be the first Avatar: The Last Airbender show that won't broadcast on Nickelodeon, as the show is slated to be a Paramount+ streaming original. Both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra were Nickelodeon shows, partially due to the fact that they predated the streaming boom and creation of Paramount+ in 2021. The decision to make Seven Havens a streaming original for Paramount+ is also likely going to be a controversial one. Paramount received pushback from fans of the franchise when the Avatar Aang movie was switched to a streaming original after originally being planned as a theatrical release. This new reveal is a sign that Paramount and Avatar Studios is doubling down on modernizing and the streaming format. Seven Havens Will Also Release All 26 Of Its Episodes Simultaneously Paramount also revealed another, arguably more concerning, detail about Avatar: Seven Havens and the way it will be released in addition to the streaming original format. Seven Havens will reportedly premiere all 26 of the episodes Paramount has ordered so far at once, rather than following a weekly release schedule. Once again, both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra followed a weekly release, though that was partially due to the traditional broadcast format of Nickelodeon. When Seven Havens premieres on October 9, viewers will be able to watch all 26 episodes in a binge-release format. Paramount didn't explain the rationale behind the binge-release, but that does mirror Netflix's approach to its live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender. The key difference is that Seven Havens has far more episodes than the live-action The Last Airbender, and it's also telling a new story focusing on new characters rather than a familiar and established one. It's also worth mentioning that Seven Havens' expedited release schedule may be a result of the recent data leak Paramount suffered. Infamously, the entirety of the Avatar Aang movie was leaked online following a hack of a company responsible for the film's advanced screener copies months before it was originally planned to be released. Paramount may be worried that Seven Havens is also vulnerable to data leaks, and they may be releasing it so quickly in an effort to beat hackers to the proverbial punch. It also remains to be seen if Paramount's release format will pay off. The binge-release format has some advantages, such as not forcing viewers to wait weeks for a complete season, but it also has numerous disadvantages. Most notably, Seven Havens won't have much staying power; viewers will watch the entire season immediately and be done with it within weeks. A traditional weekly schedule allows shows like Invincible or The Boys to remain relevant and in the spotlight of popular culture for months. Only time will tell if Avatar: Seven Havens will endure or be a flash in the pan. Release Date October 9, 2026 Creator(s) Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko