Netflix announces cast for live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series

Charlotte Whyatt • 13 Aug 2021 News

Expectation for the show is cautiously optimistic after M. Night Shyamalan's disastrous 2010 feature film.  

Netflix has unveiled the main cast for its live-action adaptation of acclaimed animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

Gordon Cormier, who recently appeared in last year’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, will play 12-year-old Aang, the latest reincarnation of the all-powerful Avatar that’s able to control all four elements Air, Water, Earth and Fire.   

Kiawentiio and 13 Reasons Why’s Ian Ousley will play Water tribe siblings Katara and Sokka, the former being what’s known as a bender with the ability to control their respective element, who join Aang in the fight to defeat the evil Fire Nation. 

Finally, PEN15 actor Dallas Liu will play exiled Fire Nation Prince Zuko who’s desperate to win back the approval of his tyrannical father Lord Ozai by capturing the Avatar. 

The streaming giant also revealed that Albert Kim, who previously served as a writer on both the Sleepy Hollow and Nikita series, will serve as showrunner. 

Directing duties for the currently unknown number of episodes will be shared out amongst Michael Goi, Jabbar Raisani and Roseanne Liang.

Original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were initially attached to this project but announced their departure in August 2020 because they felt that they “would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series.”

A release date for Avatar: The Last Airbender is not yet known but you can stream the entirety of the animated series on Netflix now. 

Source: Polygon