Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra – Picture: Nickelodeon
Headlines have been dominating over the past few days about Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra imminently leaving Netflix, however, they are likely to be streaming a little longer before moving over to Paramount+ exclusively.
Both animation series originally aired on Nickelodeon in the 2000s and were added to Netflix in the US in 2020 and both lit up the top 10s.
Avatar: The Last Airbender in particular performed extremely well on Netflix with it spending 61 days in the top 10s. The Legend of Korra spent 20 days in the US top 10s.
Brian Robbins confirms Avatar: The Last Airbender will leave Netflix Eventually
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Brian Robbins (who serves as Nickelodeon’s CEO) in mid-July 2020, he was asked whether bigger shows licensed to Netflix would leave. Here are the quotes:
THR: Eventually, I’d imagine, Avatar and iCarly will be taken off of Netflix and come home to Paramount+ as an exclusive.
Yes. And it’s not like this is some secret that we’re pulling the wool over anybody else’s eyes on other services. They’re happy to have the content and they understand the strategy. We’re very upfront about it.
Later in the interview, they seem to gloss over the fact that they also licensed The Legend of Korra to Netflix but the main point is that Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra aren’t going to be on the service forever.
That shouldn’t come as much surprise to anyone that’s been a Netflix customer for any length of time.
So how long will they be on Netflix? Shows are typically licensed in yearly intervals to Netflix. The contract is clearly longer than one year as we passed the first year anniversary of the show being added on May 15th, 2020.
Most Nickelodeon shows currently on Netflix have been available since 2019 and any added before that are no longer available. That means we could see the series stick around for another couple of years and leave in the summer of 2023.
Netflix has not provided any removal dates for Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra.
Will Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra leave Netflix outside the United States?
Of course, Netflix also hosts these two shows in the majority of regions around the world.
Although they all differed in when they got the two respective series, unlike in the US, Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS don’t have a streaming presence in these regions at least for now.
So while we should assume these contracts will eventually lapse in these regions, where they head to after Netflix isn’t immediately clear.
Elsewhere, Paramount+ is prepping exclusive Avatar projects in the future with the newly formed Avatar Studios creating new content including a theatrical animated film.
Netflix is also working on its own live-action Avatar project too which has gone through multiple issues throughout development. Filming on the new series is due to begin in November 2021.