The Avatar Order: What to Watch, Read and Play, Era by Era

Updated October 13, 2026.

Avatar's story now covers roughly 10,000 years, and it reached audiences out of order. The original series came first, then a sequel, then novels about earlier Avatars, a film set between the two shows and a series set more than two centuries after Korra. This guide places each piece where it falls in the world's own history, from Wan to the twins Pavi and Nisha, then offers a shorter path for newcomers.

Before the Four Nations

Wan was the first Avatar, living roughly 10,000 years before Korra. He joined with the light spirit Raava, which started the reincarnation cycle and a long struggle with the dark spirit Vaatu. Steven Yeun voices him in flashback episodes during Book 2 of The Legend of Korra. Watch them in place as part of Korra rather than on their own.

Sonam lived thousands of years before Aang, in a golden age of the Air Nomads before the Four Nations existed. Her staff, which can grant airbending, drives the plot of the 2026 film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, where Freida Pinto voices her according to the credits. Her own story comes in The Tempest of Sonam, Randy Ribay's novel due July 20, 2027. In it, the 17-year-old Avatar confronts the secretive Four Pillars and their firebender Asiong, who is hunting practitioners of the lost art of energybending.

Yangchen

Yangchen, the Air Nomad Avatar before Kuruk, leads F.C. Yee's The Dawn of Yangchen (2022) and The Legacy of Yangchen (2023). Abrams collected both in an Ultimate Collector's Edition on October 6, 2026. She also appears in Season 2 of Netflix's live-action series, played by Dichen Lachman, and in the anthology Avatar Legends: Masters of the Elements.

Kuruk

Kuruk is the Northern Water Tribe Avatar who followed Yangchen, three Avatars before Aang. Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos, a Paramount+ series announced October 9, will cover his teenage years in a peaceful era, with Bryan Konietzko as showrunner. It has no premiere date.

The adult Kuruk appears in flashbacks in F.C. Yee's Kyoshi novels, which show him secretly fighting dark spirits, including Father Glowworm. He died at 33, seven years before The Rise of Kyoshi opens. He also speaks with Aang in the original series' 2008 finale, and Meegwun Fairbrother played him in the first season of Netflix's live-action show.

Kyoshi and Roku

Kyoshi, the Earth Kingdom Avatar who followed Kuruk, headlines The Rise of Kyoshi (2019) and The Shadow of Kyoshi (2020), the first Chronicles of the Avatar novels. Her successor, Roku, gets Randy Ribay's The Reckoning of Roku (2024), which follows the young Avatar alongside his friend Sozin, and The Awakening of Roku (December 30, 2025), in which he helps contain an illness spreading through the North.

"Earth and Water," a free Comics Giveaway Day story about a young Roku, is reprinted in Masters of the Elements Volume 1. Tabletop players can add Voyage of the Unity, five linked Roku-era adventures for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, set aboard a research ship built jointly by the Four Nations. Its publisher, Beadle & Grimm's, now lists the retail release for 2027.

Aang

The original Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008) covers the end of the Hundred Year War across three books: Water, Earth and Fire. Netflix's live-action series retells the same story, one season per book. Seasons 1 and 2 are out, and the final season arrives in 2027.

Several Dark Horse graphic novels slot into the war years:

• The Kyoshi Warriors, a three-issue miniseries set between Suki's first two appearances in the animated series; the collected Volume 1 arrives November 10
• Jet: Rebels and Rhinos (2026), a prequel to Jet's first appearance that shows how he formed the Freedom Fighters
• Enter the Blue Spirit (February 23, 2027), set early in Zuko's exile, when he wears the Blue Spirit mask for the first time

Abrams' young-adult novel Avatar Legends: City of Echoes (2025), by Judy I. Lin, follows a refugee in Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring during the war.

After the war come Dark Horse's post-war comics, such as Ashes of the Academy, in which Fire Lord Zuko takes his reforms to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Then comes the 2026 film, set about 13 years after the war, with an adult Aang still the world's only airbender.

Korra

The Legend of Korra (2012–2014) follows Aang's successor across four books: Air, Spirits, Change and Balance. Wan's flashback episodes sit inside Book 2.

Dark Horse's Korra graphic novels fill in more of this era. The Mystery of Penquan Island (2025) sends Mako and Bolin into their family's past. In Kya and the Secret of the Sand (2026), Aang and Katara's daughter Kya tells a recovering Korra about a youthful trip to the Si Wong Desert. DiMartino's three-part graphic novel The Legend of Korra: The Long Game was announced at New York Comic Con, with no publisher or date yet.

About 225 years later

Avatar: Seven Havens is set about 225 years after The Legend of Korra, in a world broken by a disaster called the Cataclysm. Survivors live in seven fortified havens and fear the Avatar. Pavi, a young earthbender in the haven of Ellora, and her long-lost twin Nisha are both the Avatar, the first time the cycle has produced two people at once. Book One airs weekly on Paramount+ through October 30. Book 2 was ordered with it in 2025, and Books 3 and 4 were renewed on premiere day.

Games that cross eras

Some releases don't sit in one period. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game mixes characters from across the timeline, and Avatar: Realms Collide gathers heroes from every era. Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game lets players build characters in five eras: Kyoshi, Roku, the Hundred Year War, Aang and Korra.

The first-timer path

New viewers should start with the screen stories in release order:

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender
2. The Legend of Korra
3. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
4. Avatar: Seven Havens

All four stream on Paramount+ in the US. The film's story falls before Korra, but watching it third keeps release order, and Montgomery has said Paramount's main note was that people who had never seen the series should be able to enjoy it.

Readers who want more should start the novels with The Rise of Kyoshi, the first Chronicles of the Avatar book, then go back to Yangchen. The completionist path is everything above, top to bottom.