Daniel Dae Kim has been cast in Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series – he’ll play the ruthless Fire Lord Ozai, leader of the Fire Nation.
He joins a cast that so far includes Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dallas Liu as Ozai’s son Zuko.
The original Avatar: The Last Airbender series ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon between 2005 and 2008 and followed Aang (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen) and his friends, who must save the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai and ending the destructive war with the Fire Nation. A follow-up series set in the same universe, The Legend of Korra (in which Kim had a recurring voice role), launched in 2012 and ran for four seasons.
The new series will be a reimagining of the story and will be overseen by showrunner Albert Kim, who previously worked on the supernatural Fox show Sleepy Hollow. Original series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko will not be involved.
As for Daniel Dae Kim, he last starred in the Netflix sci-fi movie Stowaway alongside Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette, and he voiced the role of Chief Benja, Raya’s father, in Raya and the Last Dragon. He’s also had roles in shows like Lost, Angel, and Hawaii Five-0, as well as movies including Hellboy and the Divergent series.
Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn’t have a release date yet, but while we wait for the series to arrive on the steamer you can check out our list of the best Netflix shows to watch right now.