‘The Legend Of Aang: The Last Airbender’ Confirms Original VAs Were Recast In Order To “Match Actors’ Ethnic/Racial Background To The Characters”
When the news broke that the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel film, The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, had declined to bring back the series’ original voice cast and instead chose to wholesale replace them, many fans were left scratching their head as to what possible reason could have motivated this bizarre decision – but thanks to casting director Jenny Jue, we now know that the reason was, unsurprisingly, identity politics.
First announced as in production in February 2021 under the supervision of original series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko via Paramount’s then-newly established Avatar Studios (with the pair’s return to the animated series prompted by their dissatisfaction with the experience working on Netflix’s live-action series), The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender will serve as the first of three movies that will explore Aang and company’s adulthood adventures following their defeat of Fire Lord Ozai.
However, despite picking back up where the series left off, the film, as noted above, will not be bringing back the original voice cast for the main Gaang, despite all of them being still alive and most still working, but instead replace them with a brand new voice cast.
At current, the confirmed voice cast for The Legend of Aang includes:
- Korean singer Eric Nam as Aaang, taking over from Zach Tyler Eisen.
- Jessica Matten as Katara, taking over from Mae Whitman.
- Román Zaragoza as Sokka, taking over from Jack De Sena
- And Dionne Quan (herself a blind woman) as Toph, taking over from Jessie Flower
(It should be noted that there does currently exist a rumor that Zuko’s original VA, Dante Basco, will be reprising his role as the firebender, but this has yet to be confirmed by an official source.)
To this end, in the two-years since this primary casting was announced, Paramount Pictures and Avatar Studios have remained completely radio silent as to the behind-the-scenes decisions that led to this VA shake-up.
However, thanks to the aforementioned Jue, fans finally have their answer.
Jue, whose thus far 17-year-long industry career has served as the casting director for such projects as Inglourious Basterds, The Brother’s Sun, and the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, confirmed this production detail during a recent Ask Me Anything session held with the /r/movies Reddit community.
Asked directly by a user if there was “”Is there “any reason why you guys decided not to bring the original cast back for the ultimate nostalgia trip?”, the casting director asserted, “Since the original show was released, there’s been more emphasis in VO to match actors’ ethnic/racial background to the characters they’re portraying.”
“ATLA is a fictional world, but there are cultural influences for each nation/kingdom, and we wanted to explore the talent from those groups,” she added. “I can’t say much more about it the film, except that I’m really proud of this cast and I hope the other fans keep an open mind to this new iteration of our beloved characters!”
At present, The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender is looking to start flexing its theatrical bending skills on January 30th, 2026.
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