Long ago, Aang Aang made his long awaited transition from Nickelodeon’s anime-inspited masterpiece “Avatar: The Last Airbender to the realm of flesh and blood with 2010’s The Last Airbender”, but then everything changed when the movie faceplanted into eternal infamy. Fast forward to 2024, and Netflix’s first season of “Avatar: The Last Airbeder” gave the young Aang and his allies on Team Avatar a second chance at live-action glory, and the final product was proof positive in the importance of always extending second chances. While two years is a long time to wait between seasons, albeit an interval seen with greater commonality in the streaming era, the long awaited Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 has arrived, and with its expanded scope and the debut of one of the original show’s most beloved Earthbenders, “Avatar” season two elevates the adventures, the stakes, and the fun of its predecessor, even if it can’t quite overcome the obstacle of adolescent actors visibly aging in said two year gap.
Trailer
Cast
Gordon Cormier returns as the young Avatar and last Airbender Aang, with Kiawentiio back as his Waterbending friend Katara and Ian Ousley portraying her rambunctious brother Sokka. Dallas Liu also returns as the honor-obsessed Fire Prince Zuko, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee playing his mentor Uncle Iroh and Daniel Dae Kim back as the villainous conqueror of the show and Zuko and Azula’s father, Fire Lord Ozai, with their much more warm-hearted mother Ursa played in flashbacks by Lilly Gao. Elizabeth Yu is also back as Zuko’s sister and rival, Fire Princess Azula, with Thalia Tran and Momona Tamada returning as Azula’s more good-hearted teammates Mae and Ty Lee. Maria Zhang also picks up the fans of the Kyoshi Warrior’s leader Suki, with Sebastian Amoruso reprising his role as Jet, along with Yvonne Chapman and Meegwan Fairbrother as Aang’s past Avatar lives, Kyoshi and Kuruk, with Lawrence Kao assuming the role of Avatar Roku and Dichen Lachman also expanding the Avatar legacy further as another of Aang’s predecessor’s, Yangchen. And, of course, for “Avatar” aficionados, the most exciting addition to the show’s roster is Aang’s blind Earthbending mentor and friend Toph Beifong, played by Miyako, with Crystal Yu and Shintaro Kanaoya as Toph’s wealthy high-society parents Poppy and Lao, and Chin Han as the nefarious Ba Sing Se emissary Long Seng.
Aang and Katara unite their Waterbending skills.
Aang and Team Avatar quickly learn that Ba Sing Se is full of secrets.
Plot
After stopping the Fire Nation’s conquest of the Nothern Water Tribe, Avatar Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka continue to venture the Four Nations to help fight the Fire Nation’s conquest of the world, with Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors frequently lending a hand. However, Aang also remains an Avatar on the run, with Fire Lord Ozai having tasked both his exiled son Zuko and his much more loyal daughter Azula with competing mission to capture the Avatar. Although Zuko’s interest in reclaiming his honor and getting back in the good graces of his father has begun to wane with the support of his loving Uncle Iroh, Azula remains committed as ever with the assistance of Ty Lee and Suki on her side, with their pursuit soon pulling Zuko himself back into the fold. Meanwhile, while Aang remains the last airbender and has master Waterbending with Katara’s tutelage, his role as the Avatar – the only person in the world who can master all four elements – requires that he must find teachers to mentor him in both Earth and Firebending. That’s becoming even more critical with the Fire Nation’s invasion of the Four Nations intensifying along with the impending arrival of Sozin’s Comet, which will heighten the power of all Firebenders to their highest levels. As Team Avatar enters the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se in search of an Earthbending teacher for Aang, they stumble upon the most unlikely candidate of all – a blind girl named Toph, heiress to the wealthy Beifong family dynasty who secretly competes in underground Earthbending matches under the guise of “The Blind Bandit”. After realizing that Aang knows her secret, Toph agrees to join Team Avatar as his Earthbending teacher, all while the hero’s venture in Ba Sing Se grows increasingly fraught with unexpected twists.
Action
“Avatar” Season Two Adapts Its Animated Counterpart Well (& Is Two-For-Two On One-Upping The Original Show’s Intro)
For a show whose first foray into live-action was so catastrophic, Netflix’s “Avatar” reboot keeps making it look easy. Like the original Book Two before it, “Avatar” season two both captures the fun and elevates the stakes of its predecessor with Aang’s venture into Earthbending, kicking the season off with one of its best updates to the “Avatar” mythos with its rendition of the show’s introductory sequence. “Avatar” fans know it well with the voice of Mae Whitman’s Katara name-dropping the elements of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air as different Avatars bend them against a red backdrop leading into Katara’s cliff notes of the Fire Nation’s conquest and Aang’s mission as the Avatar.
Aang learns that mastering Earthbending requires great power.
Aang must modify his battle strategy.
Following season one’s excellent recreation of the original show’s introduction to the “Avatar” universe seen in the pilot, “Avatar” season two gets underway with a phenomenal rendition of the mainline intro to “Avatar” seen in most episodes of the series’ three-season run, and to call it a fantastic update to an already excellent episode-by-episode kick off would be an understatement. While Netflix’s “Avatar” keeps its intro sequences strictly in the first episode of each season, it really puts the budget, effects, and martial arts choreography to work in bringing the world, characters, and action of “Avatar” to vibrant life in live-action. To be fair, 2010’s infamous “The Last Airbender” began with a quite solid recreation of the show’s intro itself (before falling off a cliff immediately after), but the version seen in Netflix’s “Avatar” really is something spellbinding and immersive, built on the shoulders of a masterful introduction to each episode and made that much more captivating with Netflix’s presentation of the “Avatar” universe.
Miyako Steals Season Two As Toph!
For “Avatar” fans, seeing Team Avatar reunite two years after Book One is only half the fun of Book Two, with the treasure trove of new characters that Book Two brought into the story. Admittedly, the shift of Azula’s intro to first season does sacrifice a bit of the dynamic that her delightfully devilish debut as the villainess of “Avatar” Book Two brought, with the trade-off being the more expanded longevity of her presence in Netflix’s rendition of “Avatar” overall. However, no character debut in “Avatar” season two has been more anticipated than that of Toph Beifong, and Netflix could not have gotten a better blind bandit than Miya Cech to mentor Gordon Cormier’s Aang in the ways of Earthbending.
Azula disguises herself as a Kyoshi warrior to infiltrate Team Avatar.
Fire Lord Ozai is pleased with Princess Azula’s dedication to his mission.
The banter of Aang’s pacifist Airbending monk training under the no-non-sense, straight-shooter, and uncompromising methods of Toph was one of the great highlights of “Avatar” Book Two, a distinction Netflix clearly recognized and plays up to great effect in season two. Admittedly, the moment where Aang finally learns to properly Earthbend is played in a much more understated manner and setting compared to Toph letting Aang navigate much more direct danger in Book Two, but it fits well into the cloak and dagger of Team Avatar’s dive into the clandestine underbelly of Ba Sing Se’s high society. In any case, Miyako’s performance as Toph steals season two with all the the famed teenybopper grit and snark of her namesake to the second live-action go at “Avatar” in live-action.
Iroh trains Prince Zuko in the hidden art of Lightning Bending.
Jet is caught in an Icebending trap!
Netflix’s “Avatar” Is Still Breathtaking In Its Scope & Sense Of Adventure, The Bending Action Hits Hard Once Again!
Of course, the legacy of “Avatar” is steeped in the show and its expanded universe being a fully realized fictional world capturing the essence of Asian culture with a fantastical spin. With sets, effects, costumes, and resources worthy of a big-budget movie, Netflix’s “Avatar” continues to do with the 2010 movie failed to in capturing the scope of the Four Nations and the epic scale of the adventure of Team Avatar’s three-season journey. In bringing the city of Ba Sing Se to life – the “Avatar” universe’s clear analogue for Beijing – and other locations like the mythical Library and its gargantuan avian guardian Wan Shi Tong, “Avatar” season two continues to breath amazing life into the vibrant world of its namesake. And most importantly, that life most vibrantly extends to the elements that bend.
Jet suspects there’s more to Zuko’s story than he’s telling.
Katara and Sokka share a Waterbending fist bump.
If anything, “Avatar” season two doubles down, and doubles up, on the intensity and majesty of its Chinese martial arts-based bending action. Perhaps in a tacit encapsulation of the challenge Aang faces as an Airbender training in literally in the hardest of the elements under Toph’s strict but fittingly fun tutelage, the fight scenes of season two seem tailored towards packing a greater punch and harder impact on all levels. That’s certainly seen in the handful on non-bending based fight scenes in season two with the Kyoshi warriors and Mai and Ty Lee that get surprisingly intense for a show famously meant to be enjoyed by the whole family. Nor is season two’s combination of grace and power in its action forsaken in the bending-based fight scenes, of which, once more, Toph steals the show. Even for seasoned “Avatar” fans, the sight of Toph putting her fist through an incoming rock attack with casual effort is a jaw-dropping sight to behold in live-action. The action of season two also really ups its shock factor in the climactic cliffhanger, which brings Team Avatar against Zuko and Azula in a battle of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air that generally recreates the equivalent cliffhanger of the original “Avatar” season two pretty faithfully, but even devoted “Avatar” fans are sure to find its literally shocking conclusion one that hits like a bolt of lightning through the chest when translated to live-action for the first time.
Katara is a true warrior wielding the power of Waterbending.
Team Avatar learns when the Fire Nation will be at their most powerful with the arrival of Sozin’s Comet!
Summary
It’s next to impossible to truly replicate the kind of lightning in a bottle animated phenomenon that “Avatar: The Last Airbender” brought to Nickelodeon, but Netflix’s “Avatar” exemplifies that the endeavor is far from futile. Indeed, a greater exercise in futility is found in overstating the splendid casting of Miyako as Toph Beifong and her performance as the world’s greatest Earthbender, the continued strength and chemistry of the show’s take on Team Avatar, and the ever grander scope of the Four Nations and Bending action that Netflix continues to bring to the live-action do-over of “Avatar”. Requisite letters and social media postings of “Thank you” towards Netflix are also most certainly warranted for the platform filming seasons two and three back-to-back, the wait for “Avatar” season three lass than a year away and the anticipation for it deservedly stoked to a boiling point by the collective inferno of the Fire Nation with the cliffhanger of “Avatar” season two and the stakes raised sky high going into season three!
Toph gives Aang no shortcuts in mastering Earthbending.
Toph’s Earthbending skills are second to none!
Favourite Quotes:
“I am the greatest Earthbender in the world!” – Toph, echoing a major quote from “Avatar” Book Two when her Earthbending skill greatly advances.
“How can I bend something I can’t see?” – Aang, when the blind Toph is teaching him to bend Earth-based objects that are out of his view.
“Whoa!” – Toph, in reply.
Toph’s fists carry the true power of Earthbending.
Zuko grew up under the cruel parentage of Fire Lord Ozai.
Trivia:
Like Noah Ringer, who played Aang in 2010’s “The Last Airbender”, Gordon Cormier is a Taekwondo practitioner.
James Sie, who voiced the beloved character the Cabbage Man in the original “Avatar”, reprises his role in live-action Netflix’s “Avatar”.
Compared to the first season, which built much of the world of “Avatar” on green screens and sound stages, season two built many large-scale sets for the series, including the Earth Kingdom’s capital city of Ba Sing Se.
“Avatar” seasons two and three were filmed back-to-back, with season two being filmed from September 2024 to May of 2025 and season three being filmed from May to November of 2025.
Season two of Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is the first of three major releases in the “Avatar” franchise in 2026, followed by the animated movie from Avatar Studios “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” on Paramount+ and the series “Avatar: Seven Havens”, which will take place after the events of the “Avatar” sequel series “The Legend of Korra”.
Aang seeks guidance from one of his Avatar predecessors, Avatar Yangchen.
Aang trains tirelessly to master the art of Earthbending.
Film rating: 8.5/10
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” season two is now streaming worldwide on Netflix! Have you seen “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra”? What are your thoughts on how Netflix’s “Avatar” brings the world of the show and its element bending into live-action? Are you eager to see the adventures of Team Avatar continue in “Avatar: The Last Airbender” season three, or rather Book Three? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram. (And don’t forget to venture into KFK’s own Four Nations of martial arts movie news and movie reviews, in-depth exclusive interviews, grab your KFK gear, and subscribe for action on YouTube, too!)
