Netflix announces the cast of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series
The live-action remake of the hit Nickelodeon series is heading to Netflix
Film News Avatar: The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie is inarguably one of the worst movies of all time. Now that it’s been over a decade since that dumpster fire, Netflix is giving its own live-action take of the beloved Nickelodeon show a go. Original series creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko left the project last year because they didn’t have much control over the creative direction, deciding to instead plan new A:TLA content, including an animated movie. But that hasn’t stopped Netflix from going through with the show. We now have an official cast list for it, making it feel far more real.
It’s a promising cast of up-and-comers, most of whom have already appeared in Netflix productions—and this time, we won’t have to worry about the characters being whitewashed. Here’s who’s starring in the upcoming series:
Gordon Cormier as Aang
Cormier is playing the titular Avatar, who goes on a quest to master all four elements to restore peace in the universe. Cormier’s been in The Stand and Netflix’s Lost In Space, but this is his first major starring role.
Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara
Tarbell plays Katara, the waterbender who’s the mature one of the group, and has a key role in helping Aang on his journey. You might’ve seen Tarbell in Netflix’s Anne With An E and Peacock’s Rutherford Falls.
Ian Ousley as Sokka
Ousley’s taking on the role of the fan-favorite himbo, Sokka, who’s Katara’s older brother. He’s the comedic relief, but has a hidden soft, sensitive side, too. The actor’s had recent roles in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and Apple TV+’s Physical.
Dallas Liu as Zuko
Liu will play Zuko, a firebender who is set on capturing Aang to win the approval his tyrant dad, The Fire Lord. Liu’s best known for playing Maya’s bratty brother Shuji on PEN15 and has a role in Marvel’s upcoming Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings.
Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) will serve as showrunner and writer of the series, and it’ll be directed by Michael Goi, Roseanne Liang and Jabbar Raisani. Netflix has yet to announce when the show will premiere.
19 Comments
A:TLA
Aqua: Teen Lover Association?
Casting looks good (how refreshing), but Bryan and Mike leaving this over creative differences doesn’t instill much confidence in me.
I’m still not sure how they’re going to get kids to develop the muscle memory to be really, really good at martial arts – like championship winner good – really, really fast.
I mean look at Cobra Kai, it’s doable in theory.
They have to good martial arts choreographers. This is kind of reductive, but I don’t know how else to explain it. Martial arts fighting is one skill, choreographed martial arts is another. There is a lot of overlap but they don’t have to be great martial artists. They just need to look good for the angles and edits.
Plus, good editing is also a thing.
Well, at least it doesn’t follow Shyamalan’s strategy of making all the good guys white and (inexplicably) the bad guys Indian, but I still Have a Bad Feeling About This.
The bad guys were Indian because Shyamalan wanted to give his friends work.
Why the interest in transforming successful anime into live action? Sure, it’s a bit of fun when people recreate live photographed versions of famous paintings, but those copies/duplicates aren’t anywhere nearly universally interesting as the originals, no matter how much momentary attention they get.
I mean it’s pretty common in Japan to have lice action versions of anime (or more often manga) although that’s often “realistic” manga. And people just always seem to want to see these comics and animated works in live action (just look at how fans obsessively make dream casts from the get go)–which I’ve never really understood. Surely much of the appeal of most of these works IS that they’re not live action…
“Why the interest in transforming successful anime into live action?”Loadsamoney for Netflix.
Yeah yeah yeah. Let me know when they cast Iroh and Azula.
Is it weird that I think that the actress they cast as Katara looks more like Azula?
Thought the same thing. I hope she can pull off playing Katara, that’s easily one of the harder roles in the show.
Sure. I mean, can’t be worse than that first adaptation, right? Right!?
Well, they look ok, I suppose. They gotta knock the Uncle Iroh casting out of the park.This is a weird idea. Even if done really well, I’ll still ask, “but WHY??”
I’m confused, all these people aren’t white? Is this the M. Night Shyamalan twist missing from the movie?
I wish these kids all the best, but this is really a thing that shouldn’t happen. The original ‘A:TLA’ is damn near perfect, so a new one can only suffer by comparison. If there must be a live-action Avatar show, why not tell an original story set in the same world? With a century long global conflict you have so many possibilities for story-telling.
No cast list is complete without Uncle Iroh.