Ethan Spaulding is an American animation director, producer and storyboard artist. He is well known for his work on the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008), directing 12 episodes and working as a storyboard artist on others. Following the conclusion of the series, he began working at Warner Bros. Animation, where he served as a producer of the animated reboot series ThunderCats (2011–2012). He has since directed films from the Scooby Doo!, Mortal Kombat, and DC Comics franchises, among others.
Contents
Career
Spaulding spent a decade as a character layout artist on The Simpsons, starting in 1995. Following his work on the show, he was hired as a storyboard artist on the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He made his directorial debut with the season 2 episode “Return to Omashu”.
In 2011, Spaulding served as a producer for the Cartoon Network series ThunderCats, a reboot of the 1980s TV series of the same name. He directed three films in the DC Animated Movie Universe: Son of Batman and Batman: Assault on Arkham, both in 2014 (the latter of which he co-directed with Jay Oliva), and Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis in 2015. From 2017 to 2018, he directed the CW Seed web series Freedom Fighters: The Ray, which was later released as a feature film. He also directed the Lego films Lego Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash and Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash. In 2019, he co-directed the film Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island alongside Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton.
Since 2020, Spaulding has directed three animated films based on the Mortal Kombat franchise: Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, and Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match. He also produced the anime-inspired film Catwoman: Hunted in 2022.
In 2025, it was announced that Spaulding would executive produce the upcoming Avatar sequel series Avatar: Seven Havens.
