The cast of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, compared to their animated predecessors
By Dan Selcke
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an upcoming show on Netflix, a live-action remake of an animated series that ran on Nickelodeon in the 2000s. Set in a high fantasy world inspired by East Asian cultures, The Last Airbender follows a group of pure-hearted freedom fighters trying to bring peace to a world at war. The original show is beloved to this day, so this remake has a lot to live up to.
By this point, Netflix has created quite a few live-action remakes of animated shows, to greatly varying degrees of success. Will The Last Airbender go in the winner's colum or the loser's? How faithful to the original series is it, and is that a good or a bad thing? Let's see how the characters look compared to their animated counterparts and see if we can parse it out.
Aang
- Original voice actor: Zach Tyler Eisen
- Live-action actor: Gordon Cormier
Aang is the main character of the show, the titular last airbender. He's also the Avatar, the one person in all the world who can control all four elements: air, water, earth and fire. The Avatar has the responsibility to bring balance to the world, a responisbility that a young Aang once ran from. But now he's forced to face it head on.
Looking at the two Aangs side by side, we can see that the live-action show is sticking very close to the original show. Gordon Cormier has a staff, a blue arrow on his forehead, and a two-toned orange outfit. It's about as close to the animated original as it can get.
Katara
- Original voice actor: Mae Whitman
- Live-action actor: Kiawentiio Tarbell
Mae Whitman, known for roles on shows like Arrested Development and Parenthood, voiced Katara in the original Last Airbender series, For the live-action show, Netflix has cast up-and-coming Canadian actor Kiawentiio Tarbe.
Katara and her brother Sokka are both members of the Southern Water Tribe. The live-action show has kept the spirit of Katara's outfit from the animated show -- it's basically a thick blue coat with white fur at the neck and sleeves -- but the live-action has more elaborate patterning. It's not quite as one-to-one as Aang's outfit.
Speaking of Katara's brother...
Sokka
- Original voice actor: Jack De Sena
- Live-action actor: Ian Ousley
Katara and Sokka discover Aang frozen in an iceberg at the beginning of the series. Aang stumbled into this situation 100 years before, when he was running from his responsibilities as the Avatar. While he was frozen, the Fire Nation attacked the rest of the world and is now a threat to peace and order everywhere. He, Katara and Sokka set out on a quest to put things to rights.
As with Katara, the live-action version of Sokka looks more or less like the animated version, but with a more elaborate costume.
There are many more comparisons to make. Next, let's meet the members of the Fire Nation's first family. Click the button below to continue: