‘Last Airbender’ Star Dallas Liu Celebrates Renewal, Increased Opportunities for Asian and Indigenous Actors
The cast and crew of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” are still waiting to hear what their creative team has in store for Seasons 2 and 3.
“We have no idea,” Dallas Liu, who stars as Prince Zuko in Netflix‘s live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name, told me Wednesday night at Vanity Fair and Instagram’s pre-Oscars party, Vanities: A Night for Young Hollywood, at Bar Marmont. “We have literally zero details. I was hoping for something, but Netflix is staying pretty tight-lipped about it right now.”
They haven’t even been told when production will resume.
Even so, Liu is excited, specially because more seasons means more representation. “The Asian and the Indigenous community have so many talented actors and actress,” he said. “I feel like we could go in any direction that we’d like.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Netflix announced the series was renewed for two more seasons. Liu recalled the cast being told the good news during a Zoom call. “Basically, they told us, ‘We need you to be on a Zoom call because we have some post-launch things we’d like for you to do,’ but then I saw there like 50 people on the call,” he said.
Star Daniel Dae Kim initially pranked the young actors by saying on the call that the streamer wasn’t “able to announce a Season 2 for our show.” But then he said, “They are able to announce a Season 2 and 3.”
The cast also includes Gordon Cormier, Ian Ousley and Kiawentiio. Netflix released a video of the Zoom call on YouTube. It has more than 441,000 views as of Thursday morning.
“It was a huge moment for all of us because we had spent so much time with each other on the project,” Liu said. “After the release of the first season, the only thing we wanted was more seasons.”
The show was shot in Vancouver, but production may move to another location. “We’re going to be in a completely different setting for Season 2, so we’ll see. I’m always down for a ride.” Liu said. “I can’t wait to see what the writers have in store for us.”