Paramount+ Releasing Highly Anticipated Fantasy Original in Theaters

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is an animated movie set years after the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which ran on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008 and remains one of the most beloved fantasy series of all time. Avatar Aang will catch up with Aang (Eric Nam) and his friends as adults. According to the official longline, Aang learns of “an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction.” The gang “embarks on a global quest to find it before it falls into the wrong hands and threatens to upend the peace they sacrificed everything to achieve.”

The movie has been thrown multiple curveballs over the past several months. Originally, the plan was to release Avatar Aang in theaters on Oct. 9, 2026. But in Dec. 2025, it was revealed that the film would skip theaters and go straight to streaming, premiering on Paramount+ on July 25, 2026. In Apr. 2026, the entire movie leaked online, much to the displeasure of the animators who worked on it.

Now, we have one last turn in the road before the release. According to Variety, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender will be in theaters after all. Specifically, it will be in two theaters: the AMC Burbank Town Center 6 in Los Angeles, CA, and the AMC Empire 25 in New York City, NY. It will run from Jul. 24–30, with three showtimes per day.

Paramount is likely mounting this limited run so Avatar Aang will be eligible for Academy Awards, which could be a good sign; if Paramount didn’t think the movie was good enough to merit Oscar consideration, it wouldn’t bother. But that probably won’t placate fans who were looking forward to seeing the continuing adventures of Aang, Katara (Jessica Matten), Sokka (Román Zaragoza), Toph (Dionne Quan), and Zuko (Steven Yeun) on the big screen. Unless those fans live in a couple of very specific areas, they’ll be watching this movie at home.

If you do happen to live in LA or New York, tickets go on sale on July 16 at 9:00 a.m. EST. There will also be a screening at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24.

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender is directed by Lauren Montgomery and co-written by Tim Hedrick and Christopher Yost. The creators of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, came up with the story and serve as executive producers. Additional cast members include Ke Huy Quan, Taika Waititi, Geraldine Viswanathan, Dee Bradley Baker, Peta Sergeant, and Freida Pinto. The movie is produced by Avatar Studios, which was put together specifically to work on animated projects within this universe. Avatar Studios is also producing the upcoming animated sequel show Avatar: Seven Havens, among other things. Meanwhile, Netflix dropped the second season of its divisive live-action remake of the original show in June.