For those continuing to feel a hole in their heart since the landmark animated fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender concluded in 2008, Netflix’s long-running series The Dragon Prince is the perfect substitute. Debuting its seventh season on December 19, 2024, the parallels between the two popular animated TV shows extend beyond the story to include crossover cast members like Jack De Sena.
Furthermore, The Dragon Prince overtly references Avatar: The Last Airbender with a playfully amusing self-awareness that pays homage to Ang and his lovable sidekicks. While The Dragon Prince may never reach the all-time superior status of the #7 ranked TV show on IMDb’s Top 250, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans will get the same enthralling jolt from The Dragon Prince and its fantastic magical mysticism.
What Is ‘The Dragon Prince’ About?

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The Dragon Prince

Release Date

August 14, 2018

Genres

Fantasy

Cast

Jack De Sena

Seasons

7

Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond created The Dragon Prince for Netflix, premiering Season 1 in September 2018. The acclaimed Netflix animated fantasy series is set on the continent Xadia and revolves around Prince Callum (Jack De Sena), the first human to conjure primal magic. Along with his telepathic half-brother Ezran (Sasha Rojen) and a Moonshadow Assassin Elf named Rayla (Paula Burrows), Callum sets out to protect the Dragon Prince, Azymondias, from harm and return him to his mother, Queen Zubeia (Nicole Oliver).
The conflict escalates when Callum and Rayla begin falling in love with each other during their epic quest. Meanwhile, Callum must reconcile with Ezran, whose father, King Harlow, wields dangerous dark magic to keep a stranglehold on his kingdom. As Callum, Rayla, and Ezran trek across the land to deliver The Dragon Prince home safely, their efforts are meant to bring peace and stability to the region, where humans, elves, and dragons have battled for millennia.
Additional main characters include the villainous Lord Viren (Jason Simpson), King Harlow’s advisor, who channels dark magic to ensure humanity’s survival at the cost of dragon and elf extinction. Lord Viren turns to his loyal son Soren (Jesse Inocalla) and daughter Claudia (Racquel Belmonte) to execute his devious plan. The Last Dragon’s characters channel dark magic through “primal sources,” which are redolent of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s elemental magic.
How ‘The Dragon Prince’ Compares to ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’

At their core, both animated fantasy series center on channeling magic through nature. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the four natural elements utilized to bolster certain strengths include air, fire, water, and earth. The protagonistic monk, Aang, is the final surviving Airbender and the youngest Airbender to master bending the element in his generation.
In The Dragon Prince, the four elements are substituted for Primal Resources, which include the sky, sun, stars, moon, oceans, and earth, which are conjured to wield dark magic. As Aang masters the elements during his epic journey, Prince Callum and his cohorts control the primal resources to gain magical powers.

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For instance, Prince Callum can virtually bend fire by channeling sun magic. Similarly, characters can bend water by harnessing the moon and ocean resources. Airbending is approximated using spirits from the sky and stars, while Earthbending is nearly identical in both shows. As young, inexperienced, underdog characters come of age and bolster their magical powers through experience with nature, it’s easy to see how The Dragon Prince is analogous to The Last Airbender. However, the connection goes far beyond the mystical elemental powers.
In The Dragon Prince’s pilot episode, Claudia reads a book titled Love Amongst the Dragons, the name of the stage play Zuko mentions in Avatar Season 3, 17, “The Ember Island Players.” Of course, The Dragon Prince stars Jack De Sena as Prince Callum, who famously voiced Aang’s sidekick Sokka in The Last Airbender.
At one point in The Last Dragon, a playful reference to Avatar pokes direct fun at Sokka. While venturing through the Midnight Desert, Callum stops and states, “This looks familiar Boomerang.” The quote directly refers to Sokka’s trusty boomerang, his weapon of choice utilized in 60 episodes of Avatar. De Sena also voices Bait, an angry Glow Toad who can bend fire through sun magic and accompanies Callum and Ezran on their mission.
The Same Creative Forces Behind ‘Avatar’ and ‘The Dragon Prince’

Beyond the similar magical storyline and Jack De Sena starring in both series, Avatar fans must watch The Dragon Prince for its acclaimed visuals, performances, humor, and worldbuilding. Apart from poking fun at Avatar, the show constantly lampoons other landmark movies and TV series like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The humor, the danger, the harrowing stakes, and the dramatic heroism remain on par with Avatar throughout.
Perhaps the biggest umbilical cord connecting both TV shows is producer and head writer Aaron Ehasz. From 2005 to 2008, Ehasz co-produced and wrote all 61 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ehasz also created The Dragon Prince and has written all 55 episodes thus far. Considering Avatar’s immense popularity, it makes logical sense that Ehasz would try to replicate the triumph by creating a similar animated TV fantasy. Fortunately, the results are nearly as captivating and compelling as Avatar.
Aside from Erhasz overseeing both shows, Giancarlo Volpe directed multiple episodes of Avatar and The Dragon Prince. Volpe has directed 19 episodes of Avatar and three episodes of The Dragon Prince thus far, furthering a creative link and dramatic themes between both series.
Therefore, while the two shows do not take place in the same canonical universe, The Dragon Prince registers as a semi-spiritual successor to Avatar. Beyond revolving around natural elements to wield magic, both shows feature the same actor, head writer, and director working together to tell a fantastical tale. Avatar: The Last Airbender is streaming on Netflix and Paramount+. The Dragon Prince is streaming on Netflix.

The Dragon Prince is available to stream on Netflix