Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 will bring some of the animated series’ most memorable moments to live action, while also expanding the stories of fan-favorite characters.
The cast spoke with Blavity’s Shadow and Act about recreating one of Aang’s most iconic scenes, diving deeper into Zuko’s backstory and more in the Netflix series.
Gordon Cormier on bringing the Avatar State to life
One of the biggest moments fans can look forward to is Aang entering the Avatar State, a pivotal sequence from the original animated series that Cormier said was just as fun to film as it looks on screen.
“It was actually insane,” Cormier said. “It’s crazy because on the day my eyes aren’t actually glowing, so I’m just there pretending.”
The actor said he experimented with two different approaches to the scene.
“We had two options. We had a ‘Neo’ version … where it’s super chill and very effortless, and then a really mad version,” he said. “I don’t remember how they cut it together, but I think they went more ‘Neo,’ and I think it was really cool.”
While visual effects will ultimately sell the moment, filming it required plenty of imagination — especially with dozens of stunt performers reacting to powers that weren’t actually there.
“It was also sick on the day because I obviously don’t have power, so I’m doing these little hand gestures and 40 stunt guys are falling on their ass,” Cormier joked. “I’m like, ‘Can I get one more take, please?’ They’re all looking at me like, ‘Bro, are you serious?’ … No, it was awesome.”
Dallas Liu on expanding Zuko’s lore
For Dallas Liu, Season 2 presented an opportunity to explore new layers of Prince Zuko, particularly moments that haven’t been depicted on screen before, including more of his relationship with his mother.
“I felt like a young, excited painter with all the different colors and all the different paintbrushes sitting in front of a blank canvas,” Liu said. “It was so much fun because I also got to have full creativity in creating what I felt was right for the moments that haven’t been already done.”
Liu noted that while the live-action series draws from the animated show and other Avatar stories, it also rearranges certain events, allowing the cast and creative team to build something that still feels fresh.
“The live-action movie, the animated series, the books — there were certain scenes in there, and the way that some of these scenes went based on our live action, the order of events was different,” he said.
That freedom, he said, made portraying Zuko even more meaningful.
“I think Zuko — and I think you can say Azula too — are characters that are ingrained in us,” Liu said. “So being able to be them freely in a space that is so well-supported by our crew, our writers, our directors and producers… they were fully supporting some of our decisions or fighting us on some, which was even more fun because then that created real discussion about what it is that we were making and why.”
“And with Zuko, he is so special to me that I was going to fight for him every scene, every scene.”
Watch the full cast interview below: