Entertainment

Avatar: The Last Airbender producers talk VFX, connecting with fans

Interview with VFX supervisors Jabbar Raisani, Marion Spates

All production images c/o Netflix

Published

February 26, 2024

Manila Connoisseur

The Avatar: The Last Airbender fever is officially on. The Netflix live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon classic can now be streamed on the platform. Gordon Cormier, who plays Aang, and Dallas Liu, who plays Prince Zuko, also visited Manila to grace the show’s premiere.

Gordon Cormier (Aang) and Dallas Liu (Zuko) during their Press Conference in the Philippines

Reception has been generally good so far. An aspect of the eight-episode series that stands out is its visual effects. Many critics noted how the series has transported them to a vast and different world.

It was as if traveling from one place to another across a stunning world. Each area offered a distinct feel — from Wolf Cove to Kyoshu Island to Omashu, Roku’s Temple, and more.

We had the opportunity to speak with the series’ VFX supervisors, Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates. Raisani has been involved in films like Fantastic Four and Iron Man, as well as Game of Thrones. On the other hand, Spates worked in the production for WandaVision. Both were part of the team behind Stranger Things.

They told us a lot about the VFX side of things, as well as the entire process of crafting each episode that fans can now immerse themselves into.

Air, like water, is hard

In an interview with IGN, Raisani noted how complex it was to add water-bending effects to the live-action series. This was because of the physics of how water works.

Spates told us that air-bending was just as difficult to create, simply because we can’t see it. “One thing we wanted to do was to try and give it some substance, but we didn’t want to add like, a color to it,” he said. Apparently, the F-22 jet served as the main inspiration for the artists to create the air-bending effects.

“If you look at the back of it or in-flight, you see there’s a lot of heat distortion in the imagery,” Spates shared. “We stole that idea to actually mimic what the air would look like on top of the backgrounds.”

It’s always about the benders

From the start of the process, Raisani ensured that the visual effects looked realistic by having the cast “drive everything.”

“We really never wanted any of the bending have a mind of its own,” Raisani said of their team’s approach. In fact, is some instances, they would even retime the footage to make sure everything is in sync. This ultimately allowed them to “properly tell the story.”

“That way, the movement corresponded better with the performance we had to create with the VFX,” Raisani said. “We never wanted to deviate from performance driving bending.”

Spates furthered by saying the actors’ performance played a crucial part in what they wanted to execute. This includes the motions, hand movements, eye contact, and everything in between. For instance, when Katara (Kiawentiio) did a lot of gestures for her water-bending scenes, the VFX artists made sure to follow.

“Definitely, their actions drove all of the bending, whether it’s fire, air, earth, or water,” Spates pointed out. “Especially with the water, Katara’s moving her arm in a certain way, we wanted the water to flow a certain way. We wanted the bending to be a part of their motion, their character, they’re driving it.”

Live-action series ‘wouldn’t have been possible 5 years ago’

In 2010, Avatar got a movie adaptation produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan called The Last Airbender. It… was not taken well by critics, to say the least. Make no mistake, its VFX wasn’t the only reason why the film was deemed a disaster.

But it’s true that VFX technology has dramatically advanced over the years. Raisani said without the existing technology today, they wouldn’t have been able to pull the Netflix version off.

“I don’t think a series like this would have been possible five years ago,” he said. “The complexity, the quantity, the VFX characters that are really characters in the story … that type of work has to be done in such a large volume of shots.”

We wouldn’t have been able to make this show earlier than we did. It still was difficult, so we only just made it.

Connecting with fans, old and new

Netflix’s version of Avatar: The Last Airbender was conceptualized in 2018. The production started the following year. One of the major hurdles was the departure of the animated series’ original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Albert Kim eventually took over as writer, executive producer and showrunner in 2021, and the rest is history.

In terms of connecting with its fanbase, the producers consciously referenced the Netflix version to the original as much as possible so viewers can feel the link between the two series.

“We hope it has a little bit of its own feeling but it relates pretty much to the animated series,” Spates said. “We tried to mimic the animated series as much as possible, but it obviously has a little bit of its own flavor.”

All eight episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix.

Entertainment

UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony gets two more shows

Both shows will be held on the next day.

Published

August 21, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The Philippines has an unquenchable love for game-based concerts (so *wink wink* please bring more of them). Though these concerts do generate a lot of hype, the drawback is that they often sell out way before most fans can grab tickets. If you’re an UNDERTALE fan, that experience might be rocking you right now, as both shows have already sold out. But fear not: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony has just opened two more shows.

Late last month, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, announced UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony happening on October 17. As expected, both shows, at 3pm and at 7pm, sold out very quickly after sales opened.

Today, the concert experience is opening two more shows on the next day, October 18. Like the original date, the two shows will happen at 3pm and at 7pm, allowing more fans to experience the concert.

The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.

Tickets are available through Ticketmelon. Both dates will be held at The Proscenium Theater in Makati.

Entertainment

Here’s what you should watch before Avengers: Doomsday

The road to Doom begins here.

Published

August 18, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

As of today, the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take around 650 hours to watch. So, if you wanted to catch up with everything before this December’s Avengers: Doomsday, you would need to allot around 5 hours per day to watch content from Marvel. For a lot of us, that sort of commitment is completely untenable. Thankfully, Marvel has released an official watchlist, paring the list down to something much more manageable.

Before the MCU got as big as it is today, it was fun to do a movie marathon heading into a major Marvel release. For example, when Avengers: Endgame came out, some theaters held continuous marathons lasting a few days. Take note that this was before Marvel officially included every TV show and legacy movie (like the X-Men universe).

Now, heading into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel will not ask you to devote the rest of your year just for homework. Instead, here’s an official list you can use to catch up:

X-Men
X2
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame
Loki
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Captain America: Brave New World
Deadpool & Wolverine
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Thunderbolts
The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Compared to the extensive list of everything Marvel, this official list is much more manageable, especially since there’s only one show (Loki). It’s also a veritable who’s who of the MCU, so it’s hard to get bored.

The official list as seen on Disney+

There are, however, a few surprises and spoilers. For one, if you’ve been avoiding the teasers and trailers, the X-Men films might be a shock to you. Likewise, the inclusion of the critically panned Brave New World is interesting.

The exclusions are just as noteworthy, too. Though the two earliest X-Men films are included, the list doesn’t add Days of Future Past, one of the first Marvel films to use time travel. Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t on here, despite Love, Thor’s adopted daughter, appearing in the trailers. Brand New Day is also missing, but that’s likely because the movie isn’t on Disney+ yet.

Avengers: Doomsday premieres in cinemas on December 18. Four months should be enough time to catch up on these titles.

Entertainment

Marvel Studios unveils new X-Men cast

Adam Driver, Inde Navarette, more join Sadie Sink for film set for May 2028

Published

August 17, 2026

GadgetMatch

Courtesy: Marvel

At the D23 Disney fan event, Marvel Studios has officially unveiled the cast of the new X-Men movie, which has been announced for a May 5, 2028 premiere.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier were joined onstage by Sadie Sink, who made her debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, for the showcase.

The trio then welcomed Sink’s new co-stars: Kit Connor as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, and Maya Boyd as Storm.

Finally, Adam Driver crashed the panel with one final video surprise, where he revealed that he will be playing a very sinister figure named Nathaniel Milbury, a.k.a. Mister Sinister.

Mister Sinister has been a recurring antagonist throughout various X-Men media, including in Season 2 of the 1992 animated series and in the first season of X-Men ’97.

Now, he will serve as the main villain in the new X-Men film that jumpstarts the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Mutant Saga.

Given the initial cast, this X-Men reboot will be set in the earlier stages of the team’s lifecycle, taking audiences back to how the school built its foundation for a faithful setup based in the comics. Although within the MCU chronology, it will be set in the present day.

The rebooted X-Men film is now the third confirmed feature film in the post-Multiverse Saga MCU, after Black Panther 3 and Ghost Rider.