Avatar: The Last Airbender – How Two College Friends Created One of the Best Shows of All Time

This article is presented in partnership with Nickelodeon and appears in the Den of Geek x Avatar: The Last Airbender special edition releasing in mid-July.

Bryan Konietzko was doing yoga when he had a lightbulb moment. It was a cumulation of thoughts, sketches, and conversations with his creative collaborator, Michael Dante DiMartino. Suddenly, everything clicked, and the path to Avatar: The Last Airbender became clear. But he couldn’t get there alone.

“I drove over to [Michael’s] house at night; it was before we had cell phones, and I was all sweaty. We just started kicking around ideas, and very quickly, out of that, came the epic world of Avatar,” Konietzko says. 

All of the conversations and brainstorming had set them up for success, and on that night, those moments came together. In the wee small hours of the morning, the pair began crafting the characters who would become Aang, Sokka, and Katara. 

The epiphany might have seemed like a bolt of lightning, but the real story of the hit show had begun years earlier when Konietzko met DiMartino at Rhode Island School of Design, colloquially known as RISD. While Konietzko was finishing his degree, DiMartino had already graduated and was establishing himself in the animation industry in Los Angeles. Once the pair were reunited on the West Coast, DiMartino helped his collaborative partner get his foot in the door.

“We worked together on a couple shows, but we wanted to create our own show and decided to team up,”  Konietzko says.

That team-up really began to bear fruit the night that the warring world of Waterbenders, Earthbenders, Airbenders, and Firebenders began to take shape.

“Sometimes it’s good to have deadlines,” DiMartino laughs. “There was just this rush of creativity. Bryan was doing sketches; I was writing stuff. We were talking about what the story could be and who the characters were.”

It paid off. The pair’s initial pitch to Eric Coleman, Nickelodeon’s then head of development, was expansive. It included a broad outline of three seasons, though without Prince Zuko, who would come to life later in the process. Bryan spread his sketches on the table in front of Coleman, and the pair began their pitch. 

“[The show’s] core idea stayed the same through the years,” DiMartino explains. “Following Aang’s journey through these different nations as he learned the elements, and this peaceful, nomadic monk trying to find a way to end a violent war. That was always the core from the beginning and was still there when we were writing the finale.” 

Konietzko had previously met Coleman during his time working on another fan-favorite Nickelodeon series, Invader Zim. Back then, the executive had instantly taken a shine to the up-and-comer. The pair quickly developed a great relationship, and Coleman embraced DiMartino as Konietzko’s writing partner for the pitch. Konietzko still greatly appreciates Coleman’s generosity. 

“Eric puts people first, ideas second, and was gracious enough to let us know what they were looking for and what they weren’t looking for at that time,” Konietzko says.“He said he’d keep the door open and just wanted us to keep pitching until we got something.” 

Coleman remembers being excited when he met Konietzko on Invader Zim. 

“It was clear to see how talented he was,” Coleman says. “I admired his talent. We built a relationship, and then I encouraged him to develop and pitch his own show.”

Heading into that meeting, Coleman knew what he was looking for. Nickelodeon wanted to take a big swing at something different, something more epic, more fantasy-based. They could sense there was a huge audience for such a show, but it had to fit within the vibe and programming of the network. Says the executive, “I had thrown out this challenge to him that we were looking for something with adventure, with action, with a magical or fantastical element. We want action, but without violence. That’s just important to us as a kids network.”

The two college friends came up with the perfect answer for that: bending. A core tenet of the world of Avatar is that tribes exist around the four nations, each of whom has historically been able to control or interact with an element: Fire, Water, Earth, or Air. 

“I was just so struck by everything about the pitch, the clarity of their vision, the quality of the art they were presenting,” Coleman says. “It was both elaborate but really simple. It was fantastical yet felt really grounded … but most importantly, it was really emotional. You cared about the hero and all of the other characters. They all had their journey, and you cared about the villain as well.” 

It would be around eight months of development as Konietzko and DiMartino negotiated their contracts, and Coleman gave them feedback and thoughts, one of which would lead to the creation of an iconic fictional villain.

“I loved the epic journey, but I threw out the notion of ‘what if the villain were a kid?’” Coleman recalls. “We had the uber-villain in Fire Lord Ozai, but I thought it might benefit the week-to-week episodes if we could pull the villain into the storytelling—a villain who ultimately could have more of a relationship with Aang.” They came up with Zuko, one of the most richly-imagined characters in American animation.

Word soon spread of the fantastic burgeoning project as Coleman, Konietzko, and DiMartino began to bring it to life. As the show moved from test pilot to production—and after a successful, if unusual, screening at San Diego Comic-Con—it picked up another fan who would go on to help shape the show. Dave Filoni is, of course, now known as the Lucasfilm superstar who is behind most of the current slate of Star Wars television, but back then, he was an animator who had yet to enter the world of Grogu. Still, he was selected to direct the first episodes of the show. 

“I remember seeing the [test pilot] Mike and Bryan created, and I thought immediately they had made something special,” Filoni recalls. “I was very excited to be offered the opportunity to direct the pilot episodes, so much so that I wanted to do both parts of the opener. It was rare back then to get to work on an anime-style show in the U.S. I had wanted to work on a series like this since seeing Macross [Robotech in the States] as a kid. I storyboarded the first two episodes on tiny Post-Its, which took up all four walls of an entire office at Nickelodeon. It was a dream come true to work on such a show.”

Filoni came on after the series had gotten a 13-episode order, which suddenly made everything feel real for the two young creators who had seen many friends get pilots and shows picked up but were going through it for the first time themselves. Merging Nickelodeon’s mandate of wanting a Lord of the Rings-style show and an action series Coleman had told them about, they began to get to work. 

“We always thought of it as this big epic, like Lord of the Rings in terms of scale, world, conflict, and story,” Konietzo says. “But how to slice that up into episodes, that was still in the air. We probably were more of the mindset of it being very plot-driven: This is their journey. We were thinking of it as very much a fantasy trilogy but also more like a novel.” 

The quest to tell an epic ongoing story that could also be watched as standalone episodes and be rerun on Nickelodeon was a task nearly as daunting as Aang, Katara, and Sokka’s trip across the four nations. “I think we went in somewhat naively because we had never written a full television series before,” DiMartino shares. 

To help build out the room, the team turned to writers from traditional TV and sitcoms who taught them about breaking down episodes and resolving character arcs in a single episode. This allowed the show to explore its ongoing story while still fitting into the Nickelodeon Animation model. 

“I think that’s why it still holds up,” DiMartino says. “Because you can enjoy each episode on its own, but if you know the bigger story, you know how it fits in.”

It was a learning, on-the-job kind of project, and not just for the new showrunners who were crafting an original series from scratch, but also for their creative partners like Filoni. 

“We considered the ‘lens’ we were drawing with a lot. The horizon line was considered in every shot so we could get a sense of depth and perspective to everything we were illustrating,” the director remembers. “This was different from a stylized cartoon. Directing the series gave me a better sense of how to cover a scene, similar to live-action. We could only do so many drawings per episode, so I attempted to limit the number of shots in my episodes and reused certain angles in a scene to ensure the artists were drawing fewer backgrounds, which would translate into better backgrounds and animation.” 

Filoni would direct only eight episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender before he took a giant leap into the galaxy far, far away–after a personal call from George Lucas. Even 20 years later, though, it’s clear how much of an impact his short time on the series had on him.  

“I think the same things that make Star Wars resonate with people can be said about The Last Airbender,” he says. “We can feel like Sokka or Aang or Katara on any day. We hope to have friends and form bonds as strong as the ones depicted in the show. The themes are ones that resonate with our lives even though they are portrayed in a fantastic way in a different world. We all have moments like Zuko and strive to become a better person. Mike and Bryan created something very special, which captured the imagination of many, many people.” 

One of those enraptured fans is current President of Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation Ramsey Naito, who has an unbridled passion for Avatar and its hero.

“I love Aang!” Naito enthuses. “What I have always loved about the Nickelodeon brand is that it always embraces real kids in extraordinary situations, and Aang embodies that perfectly. Even though the world of Avatar is fantasy, Aang’s journey and experiences, and his reactions to this moment in his life, feel so authentic. It’s what makes him so special to me even after all these years.” 

Those iconic episodes and others charmed audiences, with the show becoming a firm favorite. It was clear from the consistent numbers and fan sites popping up that they were onto something special. And they were. Avatar: The Last Airbender would run the full three seasons that Konietzko and DiMartino pitched and would inspire a sequel series in the stunning The Legend of Korra. The stories continued in books and comics, but it wasn’t until an unexpected event during the pandemic that Naito realized what a hold the show still had on fans. 

“When Covid hit, it was a difficult time for everyone, but an interesting one for content distributors. What happened with Avatar on Netflix was a true phenomenon,” says Naito. “It was one of those ‘who knew?’ moments that reignited interest in this incredible property. It caught fire all over again, reintroducing fans to the show and allowing a whole new generation of kids, often children of those fans, to discover it for the first time. 

Even two decades in, the creators are clearly still getting used to the series’ popularity and having evermore interesting and heartwarming interactions with fans.

“It’s a surreal experience to create something that then becomes a part of other people’s lives,” says Konietzko. “But that’s what art is kind of meant to do. It’s meant to go out there and live its own life.” 

Avatar has undoubtedly done that, and Konietzko got a great example of how much it’s become part of the cultural lexicon when he saw a fan with a tattoo of Aang’s glider while walking in a Seattle park. 

“I told him who I was, and he and his friends were freaking out. He told me he’s a middle school teacher, and his students love it.”

The explosion of popularity when the series was added to Netflix meant that as soon as Naito and Brian Robbins (co-CEO of Paramount and President and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon)returned to Nickelodeon eight years ago, they knew who to reach out to. Soon, they were meeting with DiMartino and Konietzko to work out just how they could capitalize on the massive fandom and passion. It was that conversation that led to the animated sequel film that is currently in production, The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, as well as multiple series that will explore other timelines and other Avatars, including sequel Avatar: Seven Havens. 

It’s been a fascinating and fantastical journey of two friends embarking on a story they wanted to tell. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a love letter to friendship, animation, and creative collaboration. That was there from the very start and is still part of what makes the series sing for all of us, including Filoni, who wanted Avatar fans to know just how much it means to him. 

“Everyone learned a lot working on TLA, and it was a privilege to be a part of the first season. Believe it or not, it was not an easy decision to leave the show, even for something like Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Every now and then at a Star Wars event, I’ll get a request to draw an Aang or an Appa, and I am always more than happy to oblige.”