We’ve known pretty much since it became an instant hit for the streaming service that Netflix has been working on a second (and third) season of its live-action remake of Avatar: The Last AirbenderBut now Netflix is ready to give you your first look at what’s to come in the continuing adventures of Aang and his gang… mostly in the form of one very familiar face.
During tonight’s Geeked Week Live event in Atlanta, Netflix confirmed that the second season of the live-action series Avatar is in production, with a brief teaser announcing that Miya Cech has joined the main cast as the beloved The Last Airbender Character Toph Beifong. Introduced similarly early in the second season of the animated series (initially in a brief vision before making her full appearance in “The Blind Bandit”), Toph is a young blind girl who uses her earthbending abilities to connect with the world around her and extend her senses. Initially joining Aang, Katara, and Sokka on their journey to teach the young Avatar how to hone his own earthbending abilities, Toph eventually becomes one of the most powerful and famous earthbenders, discovering her metalbending subtype and eventually helping train the next Avatar, Korra, during the series’ successor, The Legend of Korra.
Cech, who is of Chinese-American and Japanese descent, is not blind, but will work “with a producer and consultant, who is blind and a professional in the blind community, to ensure that the blind community is appropriately represented” in portraying the character, according to a press release provided by Netflix.
Despite all the tweaks to the source material, controversial or not, no one will be too surprised that the next season of Avatar will bring Toph into the fold. After all, Netflix will call the second season of the show “Earth,” just like the animated series. Time will tell, Toph or not, what else Avatar In contrast to the animated series, the show will manage to adapt in its second season. Even as it soared up the streaming charts, one of the consistent criticisms of the first season was its decision to condense the story of the animated show’s 20-episode debut season into just eight episodes. While Netflix has yet to confirm how long the live-action show’s second or third season will be, let’s cross our fingers that it’s a lesson the series has learned to handle a little better this time around.
We’ll bring you more information about Netflix’s plans for The Last Airbender as we learn them, but with season two just going into production, it’ll likely be a while before we get to see more of Toph and her new friends in action again.
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