Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos – Everything We Know

Last updated October 13, 2026. Every claim on this page carries a label. Official means Paramount+ or Avatar Studios said it. Trade report means a news outlet reported it from the announcement. Rumor means it comes from leak reporting that no official source has confirmed.

The short version

Paramount+ has ordered Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos, an animated series about Kuruk, the Water Tribe Avatar who came before Kyoshi. Co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko revealed it on October 9, 2026, at the Avatar Legends panel at New York Comic Con. The same panel marked the Seven Havens premiere and announced that show's renewal for Books 3 and 4.

There is no trailer, date or cast yet. What exists is a logline, a showrunner, a pet and a small gallery of development art.

Confirmed

• Official: Wave of Chaos is a Paramount+ original series, produced by Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
• Official: Bryan Konietzko is the showrunner. CBR listed both co-creators as showrunners, but the press release credits Konietzko alone. DiMartino co-presented the reveal, and his credit on the show hasn't been specified.
• Official: The premise. A rebellious teenage Avatar breaks with thousands of years of tradition and learns the four elements by travelling the world. Along the way he stays a step ahead of an angry teacher, rowdy pirates and chaotic spirits, and helps people in his own way.
• Official: Kuruk has a pet named Nikik. Trade report: Entertainment Weekly calls Nikik a koala-otter.
• Trade report: Entertainment Weekly and The Comics Beat place Kuruk in the Northern Water Tribe, as the Kyoshi novels do. The press release doesn't name his tribe.

Not announced yet

• Premiere date or window
• Voice cast
• Episode count or number of seasons
• Animation studio and final art style
• Writers and directors
• Kuruk's official age (the press release only calls him a teenager)

Tone: a comedy on purpose

Kuruk's story has been a sad one so far, which makes the tone the biggest surprise. Gizmodo reported that Konietzko told the NYCC crowd the show would be an action comedy. According to The Comics Beat, he called it "the most comedic Avatar show to date" and tied that to the setting: Kuruk's youth falls in peacetime, before the dark turn his life takes in earlier stories. Both are trade reports of what was said on stage.

Gizmodo noted, as context, that apparent leaks online had suggested a darker show. Konietzko's pitch points the other way.

Reported, not confirmed

Most of what fans knew before October 9 came from Knight Edge Media, which tracked the project for more than a year. The outlet got the premise and the title right. These details remain unconfirmed:

• Rumor: Kuruk is 14. The figure traces to a 2025 casting call for a 14-year-old lead under the codename Baroo, whom Knight Edge later identified as Kuruk. Paramount gives no number.
• Rumor: The show was developed as Red Thunder, then renamed Metal Mountain after Paramount asked for a version aimed at younger viewers.
• Rumor: Paramount committed to 20 episodes.
• Rumor: Migizi Pensoneau, whose credits include Reservation Dogs, is co-showrunner (Knight Edge's August report) or showrunner (its September report). Both versions conflict with the official credit for Konietzko.
• Rumor: Kuruk's friends are Misunka, son of the Northern Water Tribe chief, and Hopa, who can only icebend. His middle-aged waterbending master, Gawose, ends up hunting him.
• Rumor: The Fifth Nation, the pirate fleet from the Kyoshi novels, is a recurring threat. The official logline mentions only rowdy pirates.
• Rumor: Knight Edge reported in December 2025 that Janet Varney, who moderated the NYCC panel, had said she was voice directing an untitled Avatar Studios project. The Avatar fan wiki now lists her as the show's voice director. No official or trade source does.

The first-look art

Official: The Paramount Press Express gallery holds a Nikik image, a keyframe and six Kuruk expression sheets. The keyframe shows Kuruk and Nikik on a ledge above a sunlit Water Tribe city set between ice cliffs. The sheets cover facial expressions, waterbending stances and a surfboard marked with the Water Tribe emblem.

Trade report: Entertainment Weekly says the art offers glimpses of Kuruk's waterbending style, his surfboard and the Northern Water Tribe of his era. EW also notes that he looks more like a young boy than a teenager in these designs.

How we got here

• August 27, 2025: Knight Edge Media reports a Nickelodeon Animation casting call for a codenamed project, Red Thunder, seeking two 14-year-old Native American leads. Only a pilot had been greenlit at that point.
• January 14, 2026: The outlet lists Red Thunder among three Avatar Studios shows in development. Kuruk comes up only as a guess.
• July 2026: During San Diego Comic-Con, Konietzko teases a secret series already in production.
• August 14, 2026: Knight Edge reports a US trademark filing for Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos by Viacom International, a Paramount company.
• August 15, 2026: Knight Edge reports that the secret Water Tribe series is about Kuruk.
• September 24, 2026: Knight Edge publishes the character names listed above.
• October 9, 2026: Paramount+ makes the series official at NYCC.

What comes next

No Kuruk novel or comic has been announced, and the next Chronicles of the Avatar book, The Tempest of Sonam, due July 20, 2027, follows a different Avatar. Wave of Chaos is the only announced Kuruk project. We'll update this page when Paramount+ names a cast, a studio or a date.