Everyone is steamy in the Fire Nation preview images from Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender
It all looks pretty serious, but Daniel Dae Kim pulls it off well
The first teaser for Netflix’s reboot of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender movie (just kidding, it’s a live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon that the movie was based on) was just the opening sequence that will appear before every episode, but it still heavily suggested that the show will be going for a much more “grim and gritty” tone than the original cartoon—which was usually at least brightly colored, even if it wasn’t always a wacky, lighthearted romp. Now, Netflix has released new preview images for the show, and… well, they won’t be beating those “grim and gritty” allegations any time soon.
Still, the preview images are all dedicated to main characters from the Fire Nation, and if any one of the show’s factions is going to be grim and gritty, it’s this one. Plus, Daniel Dae Kim looks pretty sick as Fire Lord Ozai. He’s got the beard, he’s got the hair, he’s got the big fire-shaped thing in his hair. There’s a man we would gladly follow in his quest to take over the world.
We’ve also got Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (new Star Wars mainstay Captain Teva) as General Iroh, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula, and Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko—the hated villain of the show who will never have a change of heart and fight alongside the Avatar and his friends.
Speaking of the Avatar and his friends, the series will star Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, and Ian Ousley as Sokka. The series will premiere on Netflix at some point in 2024. If only because the bar is so low, it will probably be better than the Shyamalan movie.