The Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast Talk Favorite Bending Abilities and Staying True to the Original

Nickelodeon’s animated fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender was a massive hit that earned a devoted fanbase… who were decidedly unimpressed (to say the least) with M. Night Shyamalan’s efforts to bring the show to the big screen in live action in 2010’s The Last Airbender. Fast forward to the present day, and Netflix is hoping to right those wrongs with a live-action streaming series adaptation, the first season of which debuts on Thursday, February 22.

Ahead of the premiere, RT correspondent Perri Nemiroff sat down with the four young stars of the show — Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara), Dallas Liu (Zuko), and Ian Ousley (Sokka)— to talk about their work bringing the beloved animated series to life, discussing their favorite bending abilities, staying true to the source material, and more.

Perri Nemiroff for Rotten Tomatoes: If you each had the ability to bend, which element would you most like to be able to manipulate? But then I also want you to tell me which element you would least want to be able to bend.

Ian Ousley: Oh, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good. I like that.

Kiawentiio: I would want to bend water, for sure. And the least that I’d want to do is definitely fire. Just because, during boot camp, we actually learned one or two forms of every element. So they had us training in each different fighting style. And yeah, I discovered that fire is not for me.

Ousley: I also learned how to bend to all four elements in that boot camp, and I’m going to have to go with water, so I can give all my enemies wet socks all the time. They don’t even know what’s going on. [makes whooshing sound] Wet socks. And then definitely air is least, least by far.

Gordon Cormier: Huh? Have you not seen what Aang does with that stuff?

Watch the video for the full interview with Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Dallas Liu, and Ian Ousley.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 1 (2024) premieres on Netflix on February 22, 2024.

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