The Netflix series Avatar: The Last Airbender took the 2005-2008 cartoon and turned it into a live action series which premiered back in late February on the streaming service. The series follows young Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) as he learns how to master the four elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Air) to save the world from the Fire Nation. Aang finds new companions in Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) along the way to aide in his journey.
Kiawentiio joined Popternative and talked about spending time with her co-stars on set. She shared, “I did spend a lot of time with Gordon [Cormier] because at the time we were both in school, so every time we do a school block we would go together and I feel like that’s where a lot of my bonding time with Gordon came from was because of how much school we actually had to spend together. But every time we were all together, the three of us, me, Ian [Ousley] and Gordon on the Appa scenes, that brought us so much closer together too.”
Later, Kiawentiio shared how the live action depiction of the Avatar: The Last Airbender brought more depth to the familiar story. “Honestly, I do think there’s so much more depth within the characters and I feel that’s something that people aren’t really gravitated to as much. Compared to some cool fight scenes I understand that, but just diving into each character and the depths of them and what they’ve gone through, and how emotions read on camera in a live action versus a cartoon.”
Watch the full conversation with Kiawentiio below.
All 10 episodes of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender are available to stream on Netflix.
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Amber Dover is a multimedia journalist with over a decade writing about pop culture. Cat mom with a deep love of horror, you can follow Amber at @Glambergirlblog on Instagram and X.