Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Live-Action Series: Everything We've Seen So Far

By Michael Hein

Netflix has finally given fans a glimpse of its live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and promised that the show will premiere next year. The streaming service has been working on its version of the acclaimed Nickelodeon animated series for years, but fans saw nothing more than concept art until Saturday. At the latest TUDUM virtual fan event, the avatar made his grand return to the world.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most successful franchises of its generation, but it has always struggled to find the right direction to move forward in. A previous live-action film adaptation flopped critically and commercially while the sequel series Legend of Korra got mixed reviews from fans. This Netflix adaptation has had its fair share of stumbling blocks along the way as well – original series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were originally touted as showrunners, but left the project early in production due to creative differences and a "negative and unsupporting" work environment.

While their departure certainly stunted some fans' enthusiasm for this series, there's no doubt that the ATLA fandom is hungry for as much new content as it can get. On Saturday, Netflix released official photos of its four main cast members in costume for the first time, as well as a teaser video showcasing the style of the new visual effects, and a couple of behind-the-scenes photos. Here's a look at everything we've seen from the upcoming series so far.

Gordon Cormier as Aang

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(Photo: ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIX)

First, Canadian actor Gordon Cormier plays the main protagonist Aang, seen here in his classic orange and yellow costume in all its glory. Cormier is 13 years old and is best known for playing Joe in the 2020 adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. He has also worked with Netflix before, appearing in its remake of Lost in Space.

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Kiawentiio Katara

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(Photo: ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIX)

The beloved character Katara is played by Canadian actor Kiawenti:io Tarbell, sometimes credited mononymously as Kiawentiio. She is from a First Nations reserve on the border of Ontario and New York called Akwesasne and has Mohawk heritage. Kiawentiio is best known for playing Ka'kwet in the Canadian TV series Anne with an E, which aired on Netflix in the U.S. She is 17 years old and has also launched a career as a singer-songwriter.

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Ian Ousley as Sokka

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(Photo: ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIX)

Actor Ian Ousley will play Katara's wisecracking older brother Sokka, pictured here with his iconic boomerang and everything. Ousley appeared on three episodes of Netflix's 13 Reasons Why and more recently had a role on the Apple TV+ series Physical. However, Ousley's casting has caused some controversy on social media that is still hard to get to the bottom of as the time of this writing.

The team behind this series emphasized their commitment to casting characters of Asian and Native American descent to honor the cultures that inspired the fictional world of ATLA. According to Ousley's managers, he has a mix of enthnicities including Cherokee heritage, but social media sleuths on TikTok and Twitter claim that he is not on any registrars for the federally-recognized Cherokee tribe. A report by The Daily Dot takes a deep dive into this issue, which is very important to many fans of the series, and does not seem to have a simple "yes" or "no" answer quite yet. Ousley has not responded directly to this controversy but it does not seem like Netflix is planning to recast him or take any other action based on these kinds of posts.

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Dallas Liu as Zuko

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(Photo: ROBERT FALCONER/NETFLIX)

American actor Dallas Liu will play the part of Prince Zuko, exiled heir of the villainous Fire Nation and rival to Aang and his gang – or Gaang, if you prefer. Liu, 21 years old, may have the most experience with martial arts stunts on screen, having appeared in the 2010 Tekken movie, the 2013 film Mortal Kombat: Legacy, the 2015 film Underdog Kids and 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings. A California native, Liu actually found his way into the entertainment industry when an agent saw the martial arts videos he was uploading onto YouTube as a teen. However, Liu has enough credits under his belt now to prove that he has the acting chops for this brooding, melodramatic role.

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Video Teaser

Netflix's brief video teaser for this series shows the symbols of the four nations – Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation and Air Nomads – flashing by in accelerating succession with a dramatic soundtrack before ending on a flag reading: "Avatar The Last Airbender 2024." While fans may have preferred a hint of the action to come, this is certainly enough to fuel the fire for a while.

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Behind the Scenes

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(Photo: NOAH ASANIAS)
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(Photo: NOAH ASANIAS)

Netflix also released two pictures of the ensemble cast behind the scenes, and it looks like they're practically as close as the Gaang itself.

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Appa

Finally, for completion's sake, this is the very first glimpse of the live-action series we saw when it was first announced back in 2018. It's not clear if this matches the visual style we can expect from the final product, but we will find out soon enough. Netflix's live-action take on Avatar: The Last Airbender is slated to premiere sometime in 2024. In the meantime, you can stream the original animated series on Paramount+.

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