Gordon Cormier as Aang
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Avatar: The Last Airbender: See How Netflix’s Live-Action Cast Compares to Nickelodeon’s Animated Characters
By Andy Swift
TVLine
More stories by Andy
Netflix screenshot (3), courtesy of Netflix (3)
Rebooting a beloved animated property as a live-action series is always a gamble, but that isn’t stopping Netflix from rolling the dice with Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The streamer’s reimagining of Nickelodeon’s iconic ‘toon drops its entire eight-episode first season on Thursday, Feb. 22, reintroducing the world to Aang, a young boy destined to master the elements and restore balance to his fractured world. (It’s a lot more complicated than that, but you get the idea.)
As with any adaptation of this magnitude, there’s sure to be some division among fans, some of whom will be completely satisfied with the final live-action product, while others will undoubtedly find things to pick apart.
At least there’s one thing upon which the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom can all agree: Netflix’s series looks a heck of a lot better than M. Night Shyamalan’s big-screen fumble. (Bonus good news: We promise you won’t hear anyone call him “Ohng” this time around!)
Scroll down for side-by-side comparisons of the Netflix series’ live-action cast and the original animated versions from Nickelodeon. Does everyone look how you hoped they would? Did any of these translations totally miss the mark? Drop a comment with your thoughts on the reimagined characters below.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Kiawentiio as Katara
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Ian Ousley as Sokka
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Ken Leung as Commander Zhao
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Sebastian Amoruso as Jet
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Utkarsh Ambudkar as King Bumi
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Casey Camp-Horinek as Gran Gran
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Maria Zhang as Suki
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Danny Pudi as The Mechanist
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot -
Arden Cho as June
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix, Netflix screenshot
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The casting is absolutely on point, but a lot of what the showrunners have been saying suggests that they don’t really understand the characters
I’m willing to see a bit of a reinterpretation of some of the roles, so long as it still works. If it’s all exactly the same as the original series, why bother, right?
You don’t need to update everything to be more modern. Sokka’s a little sexist in the cartoon, he grows from away from it. He can still be sexist and… I don’t know.. GROW in an live-action series. You don’t need to give everything a modern updated sensibility from the get go, where do the characters grow from there?
Exactly! We don’t need a shot for shot live action version when the animated series is already available to watch. I finished rewatching the animated series during the holidays and just finished rewatching S1/Book1 again. I can’t wait to see their interpretation of it.
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I’m hoping it’s similar to the live action One Piece. They were able to condense 60 or so episodes of the animated series into 8 that made it flow much better (though I am bias because I only watched the animated series after the live action show).
Honestly, they all look AMAZING. I have high hopes for the show.
Where is Toph? Who is playing her? She is way more integral to the story than Jet is!
Toph isn’t introduced until the second season of AtLA wheras Jet is pretty important to Katara’s storyline in season 1. I imagine if this gets a second season, they will cast Toph then.