Summary
Avatar: The Last Airbenderis getting the gaang back together for a time-skip adventure across three projects, but one fan-favorite star might not be reprising their role like fans assumed they would following the announcements.
Avatar: The Last Airbendersaw a lot of success when it originally aired, with the series transcending the usual limitations of an animated kid’s show with its appeal to all ages and demographics. Since its third season conclusion, the show has been adapted into a plethora of video games, board games, books, comics, a live-action film, and a streaming series for Netflix, and even gotten a spiritual successor (pun intended) inAvatar: The Legend of Korra.WhileNetflix’sAvatar: The Last Airbenderseason two marches on to bigger thingsafter the success of season one, the IP is still growing in other directions, with new plans for even moreAvatarcontent.
A newAvatar: The Last Airbenderanimated film was confirmed for Paramountwith the titleAang: The Last Airbender,set to kick off a trilogy and revealed to focus on the same core cast from the original series, but as adults. While the expectation was that the original cast would all return in addition to Dave Bautista making his franchise debut in a villainous voice role, this doesn’t seem to be the case for one important character. As reported byPopverse, popular voice acting star and the original voice of Zuko, Dante Basco, spoke about the rumors on theAvatarreunion panel at 2024’s Florida Supercon, shooting down any chance of his appearing in the project. “That’s a rumor,” Basco said of his involvement with the upcoming project. “Right now, I’m just doing the podcast. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the newer stuff. As actors, you kind of just keep going on to the next thing and do the work and just trying to be as good as you’re able to. I only have one voice, though. They’re all going to sound very similar."
This is disappointing news, especially as fans and even media outlets took Basco’s involvement as a given for the upcoming project. Basco already sat out Zuko’s appearances inThe Legend of Korradue to the character’s advanced age calling for a different, more naturally aged voice (supplied to good effect by Bruce Allen Davison), and fans have been eager to hear him return in any capacity. While the new film is set in the future, it’s certainly not so far from the original series that Zuko (already an older teenager during the events ofThe Last Airbender), would sound radically different. More to the point, the primary appeal of the upcoming project is the original team Avatar getting back together again and going on more adventures. For a lot of loyal fans, this implicitly included getting the original voice team back together again to whatever degree possible. Additionally, Zuko is a particularly difficult role to hand off to a new voice actor. If the project gives fans what they want and reallydelves into the lore of theAvatarfranchiseacross the four nations, then Zuko’s voice is going to be a prominent feature of the story for a large swath of it.
It’s unlikely that the team behind the upcoming animated film trilogy will be able to find someone that better embodies the role of Zuko better than Basco, but that doesn’t mean that the chosen actor won’t be able to do justice to the role. Time will tell how that replacement, and any others that might be made for the series, go down with longtime fans. In the meantime, the Netflix show goes on, and fans have beenpromised a darker tone inAvatar: The Last Airbenderseason two by its lead. Real news on who is actually supplying the vocal talent for the members of everyone’s favorite gaang will be released in due time, and then the project will be that much closer to hitting screens worldwide.
Avatar: The Last Airbenderis available to stream on Netflix, while the animated film will be released in theaters on Jul 16, 2025.
