Several months ago, we at Knight Edge Media had heard from a source on set that Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaption of Avatar: The Last Airbender had been written by Emily Kim. However, we could not verify with a second source, thus citing the story as a rumor. Kim is the daughter of showrunner Albert Kim and was a massive fan of the series when she was a child 15 years ago. As stated by Albert Kim during his original announcement in August 2021 on Netflix.com:
This is all my daughter’s fault. She’s the one who got me hooked.
When Avatar: The Last Airbender first aired on Nickelodeon, she wasn’t quite old enough to fully track the narrative. Yet I’d still find her glued to the TV every week, captivated by the adventures of Aang and his friends (who would quickly become her friends).
I began watching along with her with the thought of helping her understand what was going on. But my Dad-splainy duties quickly fell by the wayside as I found myself sucked into the world and characters, and soon we were watching side by side, both of us swept away by the singular mix of action, humor, and epic storytelling.
It also wasn’t lost on me that this was a world that drew from Asian cultures and legend, which is a rarity to this day and something I appreciated as an Asian-American father. That my daughter was able to see characters who looked like her on screen was more than just entertaining. It was a gift.
Emily Kim is currently the writer on the current Marvel Comics run of Silk. She is also a staff writer on the upcoming Netflix show XO, Kitty, and the Quantum Leap reboot on NBC. Iroh actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee also revealed on several of his YouTube streams that the entire “writer’s room” on Avatar features exclusively Asian writers though they haven’t been revealed beyond showrunner Albert Kim. Original show creators Bryan Konietzko & Mike DiMartino put together their own writer’s room in 2019 though many of the writers were never revealed beyond Albert Kim and Brandon Hoang. It’s exciting a fan as a child got to grow up and work on a live-action remake. It’ll be ito see interesting what other writers joined the writer’s room throughout production or will return for season 2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender will stream exclusively on Netflix
Small Tidbit… Heard a small rumor that Albert Kim’s daughter Emily Kim helped write some episodes on #AvatarTheLastAirbender. Can’t verify until the final writing credits are submitted.
She is the current comic writer for #Silk at Marvel and #XOKitty series coming to Netflix pic.twitter.com/HngoGUQ0JE
— Caleb Williams (@KnightGambit) July 26, 2022