James Sie, the original voice actor for the Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender, officially confirmed his casting in the live-action series.Sie took to Twitter to joyfully announce his involvement in Netflix's upcoming live-action reimagining of Nickelodeon's popular animated series. "Fans will be very, VERY happy," Sie wrote. Sie included a picture of himself wearing a shirt with the caption, "World Famous Ba Sing Se Cabbage." The Chinese-American actor lent his voice to the unnamed and unlucky Cabbage Merchant in the series' first two seasons. ATLA fans may remember him by his iconic catchphrase, "My cabbages!" when Aang and the gang ran into his vegetable stall.
While the merchant's presence was a running gag in the Nickelodeon show, it's unclear how many episodes of the live-action series will feature Sie. In addition to the Cabbage Merchant, Sie voiced additional characters throughout ATLA, like Oyaji, a leader of a village on Kyoshi Island. The Legend of Korra, the sequel series to ATLA, referenced the memorable character by including the Cabbage Merchant's son, CEO of Cabbage Corp. Sie even returned to the Avatar universe to briefly voice this character.
Before Sie entered the Avatar world, he became recognized as a skilled Jackie Chan impersonator, lending his voice to the titular character in Jackie Chan Adventures. The voice actor even replaced Chan as Master Monkey in Nickelodeon's Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. Sie's other voice-acting credits include minor roles in Danny Phantom and Regular Show.
Netflix's Tudum announced several updates regarding ATLA's live-action adaptation. The streaming service confirmed Star Trek actor George Takei will voice Koh, the Face-Stealer, who appeared in Book One: Water of the animated series. Additionally, Netflix cast I Know What You Did Last Summer actor Sebastian Amoruso as Jet, the leader of the Earth Kingdom's freedom fighters.
Other cast members include Gordon Cormier as Avatar Aang, Dallas Liu as Zuko, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh and Daniel Dae Kim as Firelord Ozai. Compared to the animated series, the live-action adaptation targets older audience members. "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," Lee said.
There is currently no set release date for Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Source: Twitter