‘Korra’ Creators Explain Why There Will Be No More Korra
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Avatar: The Last Airbender’s and Legend of Korra’s Creators and Executive Producers Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko about the end of Korra and the future of the Airbender universe.
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Nerd Caliber: You guys have come such a long way. How do you feel about Korra wrapping up?
Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko: It is bittersweet. But we are ready to wrap up Korra’s story. It’s been a good journey. When we started, we didn’t know how many episodes we would be doing of course. We thought it would be only 12 and now we’ve got 52. So now, we’ve felt that we’ve been able to wrap up this story in a nice way. It will feel like a nice solid unit of storytelling.
NC: So is this truly the final stories of Korra?
M&B: Well, for now. I think we are definitely done with the Korra arc. Who knows what can happen in the future. But as far as the TV series, we are definitely done with Korra. And then we are both definitely taking a break from the Avatar universe, but I always say, it has immense gravity and it always pulls us back in, so definitely not closing the door on anything in the future, but there is nothing in the works right now.
NC: When this show is looked back on critically years from now, what themes do you hope viewers will find?
M&B: Well, if anyone is still studying it critically, that is very kind of them. When I think of Korra and her spiritual journey and starting out very aggressive and physical — much more physical, much more ego-centric, to this selfless independent strong Avatar. Her taking to this spiritual side of life is something I really resonate with and hope people are inspired by.
This is kinda of the opposite arc of Aang and that was our intent from the start. Aang started out as this very spiritual little passive monk who was the reluctant hero, he didn’t want to be the Avatar and he had to learn to become a hero, he had to step up and shoulder responsibility and fight. So that was his arc, and Korra is very different, from Day One she wanted to fight and she wanted the responsibility since she was a little girl but she didn’t have the spiritual depth and so that was an interesting story for us to tell. It was almost an opposite arc and in a lot of ways their growth mirrored each other but it was definitely a different arc. So that is what we set out to do and as Mike said we weren’t sure how many seasons we would get to tell that story. We feel that four was the right number, we pushed for that and luckily we got it and it’s been an exhausting but rewarding production. And we’re just looking to put a bow on it.
NC: Is there a side story or a topic that you would like to one day come back to? Like Zuko’s mother for example?
M&B: We did that story. It’s in the comics. A lot of people still don’t know it’s out there but it’s been told in the comics. You can read the summary in Wikipedia if you want to (laughs).
The Dark Horse comics are great way to explore the other stories we didn’t get to but it’s kinda the way Korra developed too. We don’t have an encyclopedia of all these millions of stories. Maybe one day we’d like to tell them. It usually comes out like a need — like Nickelodeon wanted to do more Avatar episodes and we wanted to do something different than Aang’s, so we came up with Korra. But it wasn’t like we came up with the idea of Korra ten years ago when we were doing Avatar.
It’s fertile ground for us though. It’s an inspiring universe for us as creators. When Avatar was over I was done with that arc personally and creatively. Now that Korra is finishing I’m very happy with it but also very much done with that arc. But as a universe it’s still very inspiring to me. I do look forward to coming back, with working with Mike, and creating in that universe again. I know we have little ideas here and there but we don’t have a laundry list of things yet. It is still inspiring, it is still rewarding and creative for us, I think we will be back someday.
NC: Going back to the comics, recently Disney officially stated that the expanded universe of Star Wars is no longer canon, to the disappointed of fans. But the Avatar comics Dark Horse has been releasing, would you consider that canon?
M&B: Yeah more and less. I mean, I think what is different, compared to Star Wars, the scope of them or the amount of them, is pretty limited. We only done a few of them. Brian and I work with the comic writer and the artist, so we are consulting on the stories. We aren’t writing them but it still feels like an extension of the old series so I say it’s real close to canon. If we were ever to dive into those stories — and I’m not saying we are going to do this, people like to jump on to the stuff we say. Hypothetically, if we were to animate, we would revisit it and we might tweak some stuff and tell it a slightly different way or change some details and at that point it will be canon but I think it co-exists just fine. Mike supervises more than I do but we make sure that there is nothing that really sticks out and doesn’t fit into the world. I think they do just fine. But there is nothing in those comics that I know of that just blatantly contradicts the show.
NC: Any last words to your fans as the show wraps up?
M&B: We are enormously grateful for the years of support and glad they kept watching and sticking with us with all the ups and downs and all the different things that we’ve been doing. They are such an incredible community of people from all over the world. We deeply appreciate that they are interested in what we do. It’s just so nice seeing how deeply they connect with these characters the world and these stories. We’re lucky to have such a great group of people behind us. Thank you.
Photo taken by Cantera Image.
