Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender Came Close to Featuring a Pregnant Katara
The day has arrived for bending enthusiasts as the first film featuring an adult Aang has arrived in Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. Originally slated to land this fall, Paramount+ moved up the release date to introduce an earth-shattering storyline that many fans believed would never happen. Thanks to taking place years after Avatar: The Last Airbender’s series finale, Aang and Katara are fully committed to one another in the new production from Avatar Studios. In a wild twist, at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the movie’s creators confirmed that Katara was originally supposed to look a lot different from how she would eventually appear.
Interviewing with the outlet Variety, Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino discussed how Katara was almost featuring with child in the latest movie. DiMartino confirmed, “We knew that the characters were aged up, so we were thinking about ‘how aged up’ we were going to make them. Starting a family is a big transition period in someone’s life, and we know from The Legend of Korra that Bumi is their first child. That started to feel a little too grown up, like we would jump up past the maturing age.” The creators also confirmed that despite being with child, they had originally planned for Katara to still fight on the battlefield all the same. Ironically, the co-creators had thought of this story long before director Lauren Montgomery had joined the film. It was Montgomery who ultimately helped the creators to not move forward with this idea.
The Pregnant Katara Was Missing in Action
Konietzko extrapolated on the ultimate decision to not make Katara pregnant with Bumi during the events of Avatar Aang, “It put a weird spin on the plot of the movie, and it felt strange. It had a weird conitation because we just wanted them to have a family to have a family, not because she needed to give birth to an airbender. Lauren ultimately said, ‘I don’t think we need this,’ and we agreed. Maybe getting in battles with Tagah with a big belly wouldn’t work.”
Montgomery confirmed that there was the possibility of Katara making a comeback, hinting at the idea that a pregnant waterbender might appear in potential future films. While the co-creators did shoot down the idea that any sequels were in the works, it is always possible that Avatar Studios could return to making feature-length films down the line. Luckily, this October will see the release of the next bending chapter in the television series, Avatar: Seven Havens, and the co-creators have confirmed that a secret show is in the works.
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