Paramount+No one would argue that Avatar: The Last Airbender ranks high on the list of Best Shows Ever, but the same can’t be said for its sequel, The Legend of Korra. It’s the angsty older sibling that a lot of Avatar fans are happy to nitpick — if not for its brash lead or its modern setting, then for the divisive changes Korra made to the status quo. From its treatment of the adult “Gaang” to its destruction of the Avatar cycle, the series went a little too far, too fast when it came to advancing the saga. And it didn’t help that not even Nickelodeon believed in what Korra was doing: it shuffled the final season to digital platforms after declining ratings and middling reviews. As the franchise moves on to the next Avatar in this new cycle, it has to contend with everything Korra introduced. At least, that’s what most assumed we’d get from Avatar: Seven Havens. However, the upcoming show seems to be getting as far away from its predecessor as humanly possible.Thanks to Seven Havens’ first trailer, we know that the new Avatar, Pavi, is inheriting a world far more broken than we’ve ever seen it. In flashbacks we see a much older Korra in the Avatar State, smiling a not-so-trustworthy smile. Apparently, she was responsible for the cataclysm that brought the world back to a pre-industrial age. That choice, however detrimental to Korra’s reputation, allows Seven Havens to reverse one of Korra’s more divisive aesthetic changes: its 1920s-inspired setting. Seven Havens takes place centuries after Korra’s tenure as Avatar. | Paramount+“Viewers will notice Seven Havens has more of a fantasy look,” producer Ethan Spaulding recently told Polygon. “The real-world elements are still there in a less obvious way.”The series is also doubling down with a shocking time jump, putting even more distance between Pavi and Korra. “Seven Havens takes place about 225 years after Legend of Korra ends,” producer Sehaj Sethi told Polygon. Two centuries is a massive gap between one Avatar and the next. Typically a new Avatar is born immediately after the last meets their demise, allowing Avatar stories to explore one generation at a time. It’s not that a hundred-year time jump can’t work: The Last Airbender famously used that detail to its advantage by freezing its hero, Aang, in an iceberg for a century. Two hundred years is quite the stretch, however. Why did it take so long for the Avatar Cycle to continue after Korra? Was she — or Pavi — stuck in some kind of limbo for years? Did Korra live an unnaturally long life?Pavi is the underdog in Seven Havens, but her journey brings us into the mystery of this new world. | Paramount+It’s these questions that Michael Dante DiMartino, one of Avatar’s original creators, hopes the audience is asking when they tune in to Seven Havens. More than any Avatar we’ve seen before, Pavi is “an underdog,” hiding in plain sight in a world that despises the Avatar. “Early on, we also decided we wanted this to be more of a mystery show than the last two series,” DiMartino told Polygon. He and co-creator Bryan Konietzko want viewers to “enter the story with a lot of questions: How did the world get so bad? Why does everyone hate the Avatar? How did Pavi lose her leg? We want the audience to always hunger to know more.”If nothing else, a sense of morbid curiosity will draw a big crowd to Seven Havens. With both seasons dropping simultaneously in October, the series’ big mystery will be a bingeable one. Hopefully it continues Korra’s tale in a way that honors her character, rather than putting yet more distance between her and the larger Avatar saga.Avatar: Seven Havens premieres on Paramount+ on October 9.