In a recent YouTube interview, the creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender teased future projects. This included a new movie that may be in the pipeline, and could be set to explore previously untouched characters and stories. There are lots of other new projects happening that are delving back into Aang and Korra’s world, including a Netflix Live-Action adaptation of the original series.But this latest hint of a new film has fans wondering whether the new works by creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino could be bandying some ideas about the next Avatar in the cycle. There have been many fan creations that have explored the identity of the Earth Avatar who would follow Korra, but none has been officially created thus far.

With the possibility of future projects touching upon the next Avatar in the cycle, fans have also begun turning their eyes toward what this would mean for the world in which the story is set, and the unusually deep lore of the franchise. For example, there was a huge leap between the simplistic, often romanticized world of Aang and the different nations of his time, to the re-united Republican City of Korra’s days. The latter saw more of a mixture of cultures and bending abilities in one space, but also came with its own politically charged problems. Taking that one step further, to the future beyond Korra’s life and into the journey of the Avatar who comes after her, could have some interesting ramifications for the franchise. It could even incur a cross-over into the science fiction genre.

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There has often been a difficult-to-define line between fantasy and sci-fi, as many stories contain elements of both. From the mythical creatures that exist in the long-abandoned places of the world, to the alien races who may be looking down from above, sci-fi and fantasy can often be simplified to include anything that exists outside the human world as it is known today. There are specific things that can be identified as fantasy, like the soft and hard magic systems that exist in many fictions of the genre, as well as other fantasy tropes that will never get old. Other tropes are clear marks of science fiction, such as space travel. Nonetheless, the boundaries between sci-fi and magic can easily become blurred. Lots of popular shows are examples of cross-overs between the two. Arcane uses magic at its core, but also relies on the futuristic technology of Hex-Tech, a very sci-fi element. Meanwhile, Stranger Things is a sci-fi horror, which explores parallel worlds but also definitely has some fantasy elements, thanks to its inspiration that comes from Dungeons & Dragons.

Arcane Hextech

Sci-fi is often defined as a genre that deals with advanced science and technology. Many people associate it with space travel, time travel, parallel universes, and alien life. Some of these things can already be found in Legend of Korra, which explored futuristic concepts that built upon the old world of The Last Airbender. The show was set during an era that could be defined as a renaissance. It was a time of growth in steam-punk style technology, including the machines built by Asami and his corporation. Cars roam the streets in every corner, and there's an entire city made of metal-bending equipment and weaponry, none of which existed in Aang’s days. There has clearly been a huge amount of progress in the space between the two programs, which take place no more than 40 years apart.

This could have huge connotations for the next Avatar in line, which would have to be set even further forward in time, after Korra had lived her life. And once progress starts, it tends to keep rolling very quickly, which means it's likely that more advances will be made. Paired with the specialized bending techniques within the Avatar franchise, the sky really is the limit. How would the technology change and adapt in this next gap, before the Earth Avatar’s arrival? Could its exploration of the spirit world lead to even more parallel and alternate universes?

Korra sci-fi experiments

In fact, the original The Last Airbender series was rumored to have been originally conceived as a sci-fi show, set in an apocalyptic world where the Avatar was the only human survivor in a world that had advanced too quickly and subsequently wiped itself out. That was quickly changed during the early stages of the creation process, but the writers have admitted that they want to explore old ideas and concepts that they never got around to utilizing in The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra. Perhaps the next cycle in the franchise will bring some of those apocalyptic, science fiction themes into reality.

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