Neflix’s troubled Avatar: The Last Airbender series has cast its Aang, Katara, Sukko, and Zuto—and found its behind-the-scenes team. When the show was originally announced, fans were excited to hear that A:TLA creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko would be involved. But last August, DiMartino and Konietzko announced they were no longer involved in the new project.
Now, Albert Kim is on board as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Kim was an executive producer on Sleepy Hollow and Nikita, and has also written for Leverage.
Deadline’s news piece about the casting and creative team doesn’t so much as mention the original show’s creators, focusing entirely on what’s new this time around. It quotes a blog post from Kim (the link is broken) in which the new showrunner speaks about the importance of representation in the live-action cast: “This was a chance to showcase Asian and Indigenous characters as living, breathing people. Not just in a cartoon, but in a world that truly exists, very similar to the one we live in.”
Meet the cast of our Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series! pic.twitter.com/EaPqmuo94e
— Netflix (@netflix) August 12, 2021
And the cast does look great. Gordon Cormier (The Stand) will play Aang, an endearingly distractable 12-year-old who would like to ride every animal under the sun—and also happens to be the Avatar, the master of all four elements, who plays a vital role in his world. Kiawentiio (Rutherford Falls) will play Katara, the last waterbender in her home village, who finds Aang frozen in ice at the start of the original show. Ian Ousley (Physical) will be Sokka, Katara’s sometimes-cocky older brother. And Dallas Liu (Pen15) is Zuko, the troubled, exiled prince of the Fire Nation, who is fixated on capturing the Avatar in hopes it will impress his father.
There’s no news yet on when production will begin, or when we might see our first glimpse of the new Avatar.
At least they’re not repeating the movie’s casting mistakes. Still, the “creative differences” that led to the departure of Konietzko & DiMartino remain concerning.
The side by side pics of Aang and Katara, who are supposed to be love interests, is a little concerning. Any idea what age these kids are?
I find these casting choices very exciting!! From their pictures and brief bios I’ve read, they seem perfect. I’ve been torn on whether to be excited about the Netflix adaptation post DiMartino/Konietzko exit, but I do want to see whether these kids can pull off such an important show. I think I still have high hopes for the Netflix series.
@2/Austin: From what I can find, Kiawentiio’s debut role was only two years ago, playing a 12-year-old schoolgirl. If she was the same age as her character, that would make her Katara’s age (14) now.
@austin – From a bit of quick research, they are currently 12 and 14, which is how old the characters are at the start of the series. So we’re all good! And while Aang has a heck of a crush on Katara at the start, it takes a few years to turn in to anything more/mutual.
So personally I’d say we’re all good.
@JB actually the entire animated show happens in a timespan of a few months. Back in Book 1, when the spirit of Avatar Rokku tells Aang about Sozin’s Comet, he says that it will come in a few months(three months, if i remember correctly), so no, the relationship between Aang and Katara does not take “a few years” to turn into something mutual :V it takes less than half a year
also, Katara seemed to have a thing for Aang even way back in book 1. They even kissed inside the secret tunnel, she felt kinda jealous when they got to Kyoshi island and she saw Aang showing off to other girls.
@hilbert We actually just finished a rewatch of the series with our daughter this weekend, and in the last episode, Zuko comments to Aang that a year has passed. So by the end of the series, Aang and Katara and 13 and 15. Yes, Katara does express certain degrees of jealousy early on, but she makes it clear to Aang as late as “The Ember Island Players” that she isn’t sure what she feels about him.
Also, having taught middle school, 12/14 and 13/15 pairings aren’t actually that rare.
That’s good to hear that they are the same age as the characters! I hope that photo of Gordon Cormier is old, because boy, does he not look 12. More like 8, which made it uncomfortable for me with that photo next to Kiawentiio in some type of midriff blouse/top.
@8/Austin: If you’re “uncomfortable” at a woman’s or a girl’s choice of how she dresses, that’s your problem, not hers. Society needs to stop policing women’s attire and pretending it’s a moral issue.
These comments will be very amusing if Cormier has a large growth spurt during filming and ends up substantially taller than Kiawentiio.
@1 / CLB
Still, the “creative differences” that led to the departure of Konietzko & DiMartino remain concerning.
Yeah, there’s no getting around the White Elephant Koi in the room. For the original creators to call it quits and cut ties with Netflix was not, and still isn’t, a good sign.
As long as they were involved, I was at least interested enough despite my misgivings of another attempted live-action. We know their overarching game plan for the original show evolved and changed once production began (ex. Toph originally being the Earthbender jock in the opening titles, Momo originally going to be a reincarnate Gyatso, etc.). So it was a chance to mix and match, to reintegrate the original ideas while using what did and didn’t work in the final show.
It’s not unlike my original interest in the Rebuild of Evangelion films and for Anno to have a chance to retell the series without the psychological/financial problems he and Gainax were experiencing at the time (and the original gameplan since I believe they had to change aspects of the plot halfway through because of the Tokyo Subway attacks).
But with Konietzko & DiMartino gone, I’m just…I can’t summon the interest.
@9 – That was not what my uncomfortable comment referred to. It should have been obvious to you that I was referring to the perceived age gap between an older looking girl/woman and a child.
@12, 9: Okay, now that’s been cleared up, let’s move on. Thanks.
Not a bad looking cast at all, and Cormier looks like the spitting image of Aang right down to the ears. I need to see what Ousley looks like being a goofball before I’m sold on him though.
My son and I were just rewatching this series while he was home from college. It was my kids’ (and mine) favorite of all time and it is soooo well done, the characters arcs, the plot lines, the awesome music, the pathos mixed with humor, all of it. It makes me cringe to think of anyone but the original creators messing with it.
One major point in the new series’s favor, I have to say, is that it’s evidently overwhelmingly from Asian-American and nonwhite writers and producers as well as actors. For all that the Avatar franchise is inspired by non-Western cultures, it’s overwhelmingly the work of white people, both writers and voice cast. So it would be different without the original creators, but seeing it interpreted through a more authentically Asian cultural lens could be quite worthwhile. Like the difference between, say, Black Panther as written by Lee & Kirby and as interpreted by Ta-Nehisi Coates or Ryan Coogler.
@2 At those age, girls and boys heights are misleading. Girls do look much older than boys. For example, I reached my full adult height by 12, while my brother looked and sounded like little 10 year boy till summer of his 14th birthday where he shot up 10 inches in 3 months! Check out Sophie Turner in Game of Thrones season 1, when whole Stark family, sans Jon, lines up. Sophie is 14 at the time and she almost of same height as Richard Madden who is in his 20s and 5′ 10″. BtW Gordon Cormier is still 11 but would be 12 in October of this year, presumably when filming starts.