The cast of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender has thus far revealed a number of major events and characters set to appear in the live-action adaptation. The cast was recently reported to include Community alum Danny Pudi, playing a key character from Book 1 of the animated show.
According to Avatar News, Pudi has been cast as the Mechanic, who made his debut in Nickelodeon's animated show in the Book 1 episode "The Northern Air Temple." While a casting call for the Mechanic's son, Teo, was put out in 2021, it is currently unknown who has been cast in the role.
On top of seemingly leading the small community of Earth Kingdom refugees who made their home at the long-abandoned Northern Air Temple, the Mechanic was shown to have betrayed his people -- in order to save his community and his son -- by supplying the Fire Nation armies with his inventions, which were used to wreak havoc across the Earth Kingdom. After his secret was uncovered, he aided Aang, Katara, Sokka and Teo in defending the Air Temple from attacking Fire Nation forces. Unfortunately, though the battalion was defeated, the Fire Nation walked away with an invention that would help ensure their success in key battle later on.
Netflix's Live-Action Avatar: The Last Airbender
According to actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who plays Iroh in the live-action show, Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender will differ from its animated counterpart by being more mature, especially in its first season. The actor previously explained, "Let's be frank: the first season of the animated series was geared toward little kids, but as the books went on, the themes became way more mature... And you still have that whimsical quality, but the themes were so much deeper and the character arcs were so much more mature. That quality is what they're trying to bring into the first season."
On top of that, the upcoming series appears to be expanding on certain characters. iRumors circulated early on suggesting previously minor roles, such as that of Avatar Kuruk -- who was briefly mentioned in Book 1 and made a brief appearance in Book 3 -- would be given a slightly expanded role. These rumors have not been officially confirmed.
Actor Danny Pudi is known primarily for playing Abed Nadir on Community. Since the show came to an end, the actor has appeared in a number of other projects, both live-action and animated. He voiced Huey in the DuckTales series that ran from 2017 to 2021 and stars in the AppleTV+ series, Mythic Quest.
Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently in post-production. No release date has yet been announced.
Source: Avatar News