Avatar is one of the most acclaimed animated series of the last decades, and now it will finally have a remake that lives up to its reputation —or, at least, better than M. Night Shyamalan’s movie— thanks to Netflix. The streaming platform wants to replicate the success of One Piece in live-action, and for that, they are putting all their efforts into adapting Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s series.
But there are many aspects that, when a animated series becomes a live action, must change, and one of them is the sexism that we often find in the original. Specifically, there is a character in Avatar whose portrayal of that aspect has been greatly reduced: Sokka.
A much more realistic series
Ian Ousley, the actor who plays the character in the Netflix remake, has explained in Entertainment Weekly that during the creation of the series, they decided to minimize Sokka’s sexism, as it didn’t fit well with the new tone of the show. “Realism carries more weight in every sense,” Ousley explains. “That’s why we removed the sexist element from Sokka. There were many moments in the original show that were too controversial.”
This movement is something we have already seen, in a way, in One Piece. In the original anime, Sanji is a fool who can’t stop making sexist comments to every woman he meets. And although his charming and conquering appearance has been maintained in the remake, this has been greatly reduced to better fit the tone of the Netflix series. Either way, it seems like a minimal aspect, and we still have confidence that Avatar: The Last Airbender will turn out great.
