Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series has found its Fire Lord. Daniel Dae Kim, who's known for appearing in Lost and Hawaii Five-O, will play Ozai, the ruler of the Fire Nation and father to Zuko and Azula, in the live-action adaptation.
Kim has previous experience in the world of Avatar, voicing General Fond in one episode of the original show and a video game adaptation.
“I do have the power. I have all the power in the world!”
Netflix’s live action Avatar: The Last Airbender has found its Fire Lord Ozai: Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Hawaii Five-0) pic.twitter.com/9zYxVuiSLo
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) November 3, 2021
Netflix says Kim is joining the series as a regular, and says his character, "demands everyone live up to his impossible standards, especially his teenaged son, Prince Zuko. Ozai’s drive to conquer and unite the world under firebender rule is a family burden—he believes that it’s his destiny to finish a war started by his ancestors."
We learned the main cast for Netflix's Avatar earlier this year, which includes Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dallas Liu as Zuko.
Netflix first announced the live-action adaptation in 2018, when Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino were on board to helm the series. However, the original creators left last year due to creative differences with Netflix. Now, Albert Kim is serving as the project's showrunner, alongside The Lego Movie's Dan Lin, Walker's Lindsey Liberatore, and Swamp Thing's Michael Goi.
This live-action project is far from the only Avatar project in the works. Nickelodeon has revealed plans to create an Avatar Airbender universe with multiple series and shows with the original creators. The first project is set to be an animated theatrical film. We also recently learned that a new Square Enix studio is working on an Avatar mobile game.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
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