It's official: Christmas is here early this year. In celebration of the Winter Solstice, Netflix unveiled a series of new photos today showing off the live-action cast of the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation.
This isn't the first sneak peek to be released, but it is the first time that fans of the animated series will see characters like June and Jet reimagined for live-action. Arden Cho, known for recurring roles on Chicago Med and Teen Wolf, plays June in the new series, while Sebastian Amoruso will take the screen as Jet.
For those unfamiliar with the original Nickelodeon show, June is a morally ambiguous bounty hunter hired by Zuko, the eldest child of Fire Lord Ozai, to capture the Avatar. Conversely, Jet is the twig-chewing leader of the Freedom Fighters, a group of Earth Kingdom refugees, who has long-harbored a vedetta against the Fire Nation after his parents were murdered by firebenders.
The new images also introduce a few other beloved minor characters to the screen: one being Kanna, who is dotingly referred to as "Gran Gran" by her grandchildren Sokka and Katara. Though she's not a bender, Gran Gran is a talented healer and one of the oldest residents of the Southern Water Tribe. Another image showed off Tamlyn Tomita as Yukari, mother to Suki and the mayor of Kyoshi Island.
Last but certainly not least, it looks like The Mechanist is getting some well-deserved screentime in the upcoming adaptation. A newly released image offered a sneak peek at the Earth Kingdom inventor, played by Danny Pudi — apron and all.
A previous set of images released alongside the show's teaser trailer debuted first looks at Gordon Cormier as Aang, the titular Avatar, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Maria Zhang as Suki, Dallas Liu as Zuko, Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh, Elizabeth Yu as Azula, and Ken Leung as Commander Zhao.
Similar to its predecessor, Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender will follow Aang on his journey to master the four elements — Water, Earth, Fire, and Air — in order to protect the nations of the world against the tyrannical reign of Fire Lord Ozai. With the fate of humanity resting in his hands, the young Avatar reincarnate must seek help from unsuspecting mentors to become a master at bending all four elements.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender live action I feel like is going to bring everything you know and love about the original series back to life,” Cormier told fans at Tudum: A Global Fan Event in Brazil. “And hopefully [it will] just bring a bunch of new fans who have never heard [of] the show before into this universe, and to me that’s pretty exciting. I’m a fan of the show personally, and I’m just as excited for this as you guys are.”
Albert Kim serves as the showrunner, executive producer and writer of the new series. He was tapped to join the project in 2021 after Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, the creators of the 2005 series, stepped away from the new show.
Rideback's Dan Lin and Linsey Liberatore are working with Kim as executive producers on the live-action adaptation as well as Jabbar Raisani and Michael Goi. Raisani and Goi also directed the series along with Jet Wilkinson co-executive producer Roseanne Liang.
The show's pilot season features eight one-hour episodes and will premiere on Netflix Feb. 22.
For more details on the Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action adaptation, check out IGN's coverage of the first official trailer or read the full scoop on how the series showrunner addressed the departure of the original creators.
Katie Reul is a freelance journalist whose entertainment reporting has been featured in IGN and Variety.
