Earlier this year, Netflix dropped the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a live-action remake of the animated Nickelodeon series of the same name. Impressions were mixed leaning towards positive, and the show found enough of an audience for Netflix to renew it for two more seasons, meaning the team will get to remake the entirety of the animated show.
Long-time fans know what that means for season 2. Aang (Gordon Cormier) will continue to train as the Avatar, eventually making his way to the Earth Kingdom capital city of Ba Sing Se. Meanwhile, a new antagonist will rise in the form of Azula (Elizabeth Yu), a fire-bending prodigy and the sister of Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), who spent the first season hounding Aang's every step. As for Zuko, he'll go on a journey of self-discovery, separated for the first time from his caring uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). In the original series, this leads to classic episodes like "Zuko Alone," which is what it sounds like:
Dallas Liu is aware of episodes like that, and is looking forward to recreating them in live-action. "I'm hoping for like a strong Zuko alone," he told The Direct at Palayfest. "Like, I'm hoping I'm hoping for that. And I'm hoping for Lee from the tea shop, going on his little date. That was cute."
This will also mean acting apart from Paul Sun-Hyung Lee for the first time in the series. That will be difficult for Liu, which is a good fit for this difficult time in Zuko's life. "I can only assume that it'll feel real," Liu said. "All of my scenes in this series have been with Paul. So to not work with him in those scenes is hard because, for me, he feels like the backbone. That relationship is truly why I think the chemistry between the two of us is why those scenes feel so strong."
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee himself is a little more blunt about the prospect of acting apart from Liu; Iroh will go on a bit of a solitary journey as well, at least for a while. "It's gonna suck so hard because I'll be alone," he said. "No, I mean, that's one of the lovely things about our story arcs is the fact that you see them together at first, you establish that, and then really good storytelling is putting people through conflict... And so having them separate is going to be heartbreaking, but at the same time, really, really great storytelling to see what they're like apart from each other. And so that's something I'm really, really looking forward to. And yeah, I'm gonna miss him."
Expect violent sibling rivalry in Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2
Another big part of Zuko's journey in season 2 of the original series is his relationship with his psychopathic sister Azula, who is now out in the world and hunting for the Avatar herself. We haven't actor Dallas Liu and Elizabeth Yu onscreen together yet, but hopefully their chemistry is combustible.
"Me and Lizzie were actually talking; we feel we would kill it," Liu said. "She did such a good job. I was so very impressed. Because I didn't, I wasn't on set the days that she was shooting. So, I didn't get to see our work until it came out. So I was really impressed."
Elizabeth Yu weighed in as well. "Yeah, I'm very excited. I feel like we've been spending so much time promoting the show, too, that the sibling vibe has definitely grown. So I'm super excited to see what that looks like on screen."
We don't know exactly when the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender is coming out, but expect it to take a minute. I'd guess we'll be watching in 2025. Hopefully the gap between season 2 and 3 won't be as long, since Netflix picked up both seasons at once.
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