Netflix is making a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon’s beloved animated epic. The story was adapted to live-action once before in M. Night Shyamalan’s famously bad 2010 movie, so this show has a lot to prove to old and new audiences alike. With a budget of $120 million for the first eight-episode season, Netflix certainly seems to be taking this show seriously, so hopefully it pays off.
In addition to a large budget, several high-profile actors have been cast in leading roles, as well as a slew of newcomers looking for their big break. Here is every actor we know is appearing in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender remake. We’ll see the lot of them when the show drops on Netflix sometime in 2024 (exact release date forthcoming)!
Gordon Cormier as…Aang
The titular last airbender is none other than a goofy 12-year-old named Aang. Well…technically he’s 112, but most of that time was spent hibernating inside of an iceberg. When he’s freed at the start of a series, he’s still a 12-year-old kid.
Aang is the Avatar, the one person in the world who can command all four elements: air, water, fire and earth. As Avatar, he has a responsibility to bring balance to the world. That proves too much for young Aang, so he runs away and ends up in that iceberg, only to be woken generations into a brutal international war he has to fix.
Over the course of the main story, we see Aang go from a fun-loving kid to a powerfully, spiritually disciplined Avatar. Despite very long odds against the Fire Nation war machine, Aang oversees the end of the hundred-year war and restores peace to the divided world he woke up in.
Aang will be played by Gordon Cormier, a 13-year-old Canadian actor of Filipino decent. Cormier’s very short career includes his role as Joe in the Paramount mini-series The Stand, where he starred alongside James Marsden and Alexander Skarsgard. We will see if Cormier’s inexperience shows up on screen. Netflix is trusting him a the lead role in a very expensive gamble; hopefully it pays off.
Kiawentiio Tarbell as…Katara
Aang’s closest companion and eventual love interest is a Southern Water Tribe girl named Katara. In addition to being Team Avatar’s main emotional support center, Katara goes on to become a very powerful waterbender and mentor for Aang. Without Katara, Aang would be lost.
Another relatively unknown Canadian actress named Kiawentiio Tarbell will be bringing Katara to life. Tarbell is from a reservation of the Mohawk nation called Akwesasne, located near the border of Quebec and New York State. The young actress made her Television debut in 2019 in a show called Anne with an E on Netflix, and she played the titular starring role in the movie Beans. Kiawentiio was 15-years-old when she was cast in Avatar.