The Legend of Korra (2012)
Only the Avatar can master all four elements.
Avatar Korra, a headstrong, rebellious, feisty young woman who continually challenges and breaks with tradition, is on her quest to become a fully realized Avatar. In this story, the Avatar struggles to find balance within herself.
| Type | TV series |
|---|---|
| First aired | 14 April 2012 |
| Status | Ended, last episode 18 December 2014 |
| Genre | Animation, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
| Created by | Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino |
| Starring | Janet Varney, David Faustino and P.J. Byrne |
| Seasons | 4 seasons, 52 episodes |
| Episode length | about 23 min |
| Time to watch it all | about 20 hours |
| Rated | TV-Y7 |
| Scores | TMDB users 8.2/10 |
Where to watch The Legend of Korra
The Legend of Korra is streaming on Paramount+ ($13.99 a month) in the US. At ten hours a week, all of the series takes about 1 month of Paramount+, or $13.99 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 12 October 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
What kind of watch this is
The Legend of Korra is an animated action series that trades the whimsy of its predecessor for something sharper and more grounded. Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, it follows Korra, a headstrong protagonist who struggles to find balance within herself while mastering the four elements. The tone is less about cute fantasy and more about the heavy weight of duty. With 52 episodes across 4 seasons, the full run takes about 20 hours to watch. It is a story where tradition is something you break, not just follow.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes holds the series at 88% overall, a number that masks a strange trajectory. Season 1 sits at 91%, earning an 8.25 average rating from 11 reviews. The consensus calls it a world expanded with substance. Then Season 2 dips to 64%. By Book Three and Book 4, the score hits 100%, with average ratings of 9.5 and 9 respectively.
How it did with audiences
The series premiere pulled in 4.5 million viewers, making it the top animated program on basic cable for that week. Book One: Air averaged 3.8 million viewers per episode, the highest audience total for a U.S. animated series in 2012. Book Two: Spirits dropped to 2.6 million, a dip attributed to a move to Friday nights and the rise of digital downloads. Book Three: Change premiered with 1.5 million viewers after a leak forced an early June airing. Ratings slid further, prompting Nickelodeon to shift the show to Nicktoons and online platforms. DiMartino noted the series performed much better through that digital distribution.
What came next for the cast
David Faustino moved from Married... with Children in 1987 to Entourage in 2015 and Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens in 2016. That is a shift in scale, not necessarily in quality. P.J. Byrne arrived after Bruce Almighty in 2003 and Horrible Bosses in 2011, then followed with The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, Green Book in 2018, and The Boys in 2019. The credits list what happened next. They do not explain why.
Where it left its mark
Two outlets, The A.V. Club and io9, pointed out that the live-action series Warrior shares a strikingly similar premise with Korra. NBC ordered a pilot for Warrior in early 2015. The pitch involves a damaged heroine working undercover with a martial arts master to take down an international crime lord. The setting is contemporary, multicultural, and occasionally magical. It is a rare case where a premise feels so borrowed it becomes a fingerprint.
Queer representation in animation also owes a debt to this series. In an interview with GLAAD’s Raina Deerwater, ND Stevenson discussed the impact of queer storytelling in cartoons. Stevenson placed The Legend of Korra alongside Steven Universe as a foundational text. These shows taught young fans to expect nothing less than solid queer representation and central queer characters. The lesson stuck.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched The Legend of Korra.
Sources
- The Legend of Korra on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q18790 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “The Legend of Korra” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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