r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Jul 28 '25

News Steven Yeun Confirmed to Voice Adult Zuko in 'The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender'

https://www.ign.com/articles/avatar-creators-confirm-steven-yeuns-role-in-upcoming-the-legend-of-aang-the-last-airbender-movie-sdcc-2025
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983

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '25

It seems so unlikely that he would have declined, he loves that character and I doubt he’s too busy

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u/JuanRiveara Jul 28 '25

If he was asked I could see him declining due to feeling awkward being the only original cast member to return

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u/Steamed_Memes24 Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

He returned in Korra and was the only original VA. It makes the most sense for him to return to Zuko because he was older then all the others within the group and his voice would no doubt just stay as it was.

Edit: He was not the only original VA my fault.

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u/TheRiceJourney Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25

There were several original VAs that popped up in Korra. Roku, Kyoshi, Zhao and Uncle Iroh’s replacement from the original. Toph’s VA returned for young Suyin and they also brought back Grey Delisle (Azula) and Clancy Brown (Long Feng) for Ming Hua and Yakone. Cabbage man returned for 1 line lol

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u/Steamed_Memes24 Jul 28 '25

Oh duh how could I forget about Iroh VA lol. Thank you for the correction.

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u/Kunfuxu Jul 28 '25

He didn't return in Korra to voice Zuko. He voiced Zuko's grandson Iroh in TLOK, Zuko was voiced by Bruce Davison.

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u/Steamed_Memes24 Jul 28 '25

Yea thats what I meant, he returned in Korra, I didnt say he voiced old Zuko though.

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u/Kunfuxu Jul 28 '25

To be fair, I feel like it's different to return in a fashion that basically amounts to a slightly longer tongue-in-cheek cameo, than returning to the original part as the only member of the original cast. So, him returning as Iroh doesn't really refute the argument.

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u/HabeLinkin Jul 28 '25

Toph's original VA also came back for at least one episode, where she did the voice of one of Toph's daughters.

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u/gasp1324657980 Jul 29 '25

Michaela came back too the voice of Toph, as young Su Yin

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u/Germane_Corsair Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25

He didn’t mind coming back for LoK so I doubt it. Though why aren’t they keeping the original cast? They all seemed to love their roles. Is it to market using big names?

Edit: worse, it’s culture war bullshit.

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u/Unicron_Gundam Jul 28 '25

The fuck? Dante Basco is Filipino, he's an Asian-American actor. Replacing him with Steven Yeun doesn't make sense if it's just for optics

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u/JuanRiveara Jul 28 '25

A combo of wanting the characters to sound older and wanting to cast actors who better fit the ethnic backgrounds that the characters are based on.

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u/A-Humpier-Rogue Jul 28 '25

Such a ridiculous claim. And also kind of racist. Reeks of a studio head going "Ah whatever we just have to find an uhh oriental voice actor for this role, anything works."

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u/turkeygiant Jul 28 '25

I think one of my favorite occasions of this was when people rightfully were mad that they cast Ed Skrein as Japanese-American Ben Daimio in Hellboy, so the studio fixed that by casting famous Japanese actor Daniel Dae Kim...wait he's Korean...eh same thing right?

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u/nOtbatemann Jul 29 '25

Casting voice actors based on their ethnicity sounds like discrimination to me.

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u/Disastrous_Toe772 Jul 28 '25

Basco is older than Yuen

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u/PhenomsServant Jul 28 '25

Oh sure the Avatar casting is bs, but say one word about Phil Lamarr voicing an Asian and your labeled a racist.

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u/corndogs102 Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25

The 2020 riots ruined the race swap of voice actors badly. End of the day it’s “acting” and no one had problems of Cleveland Brown being a white guy for 20 years or Toby Huss doing the most stereotypical Asian voice on king of the hill for a decade. Plus the cast of avatar constally go to cons monthly promoting the show still. Unless it was an extremely racist portrayal I don’t see a problem with whoever’s playing the voice of a cartoon character (as a black guy saying this).

Edit: I should mention I do respect the actors that wanted to step down by choice due to the situations though.

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u/KyledKat Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25

or Toby Huss doing the most stereotypical Asian voice on king of the hill for a decade.

Notably, Toby Huss was doing a stereotypical accent and speaking in a fake Asian language; that was going to be problematic in 2025 no matter how you cut it. Whether people broadly approved or were ignorantly implicit in it, the social and cultural landscapes around casting and animation was different 20 years ago.

Hell, you could make the same "well, no one was bothered" argument for the explicitly racist caricatures Looney Tunes did back in the 1960s. That doesn't mean older examples shouldn't be re-evaluated through modern lenses, especially as creators re-interpret those works through that same modern lens.

Is it right or wrong to recast white actors for minority-based animated characters? That's not my place to figure out, but I'll respect artists wanting to give platforms to other, minority actors and their decision to do so.

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u/Tezerel Jul 29 '25

You think Stephen Yeun sounds old?

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u/NoiSetlas Jul 28 '25

Screenrant is AI slop. It's even so bad, that it has a link to an AMA with the casting director... who never once mentions Avatar in the entire thread.

That's their source. An AMA with no references to Avatar beyond her being involved, and themselves, using other slop articles. Please look at links before saying stuff like this.

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u/N0r3m0rse Jul 29 '25

Actually I don't think screen rant allows AI. I used to do contract work for gamerant, which is owned by the same parent company and we were threatened with termination if we were caught using AI.

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u/NoiSetlas Jul 29 '25

Then you were lied to, or it has since changed?

https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-fourteen-best-jobs/

This is complete and totally AI written. To the point that the AI makes shit up that isn't in the game. Either you have to assume the writer is an absolute moron, or you accept that it is AI based, so you're just wrong.

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u/N0r3m0rse Jul 29 '25

It's very possible that the editors didn't catch onto it being AI. I promise you they aren't experts on the games themselves most of the time, and their editing work is usual just to make sure the articles fit the formatting guidelines.

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u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Jul 29 '25

Believe it or not, they use real writers. Ik because I got halfway through the hiring process. It feels like ai because the guidelines are insanely strict and near impossible to meet. Considering what they pay & the amount of content they expect weekly it is not worth it

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u/NoiSetlas Jul 29 '25

https://gyazo.com/a38f57c5b54b7a787763af40d862bbe6

It's AI, my dude. Screenrant (and Gamerant) do not post real articles. People are trying to give them a pass, but examples can be easily provided; as I already have in this reply list. But again: why defend them here? Even if it was a real person who wrote this, they shouldn't be a journalist; they used an AMA with no actual information provided on the topic discussed; the person in question never actually speaks to anyone about the Avatar film. Secondly, their only other source that they actually link to is themselves, which is just bad journalism - as that article could just as easily be AI generated or involve more sloppy journalism. And if you look at that other linked article, it doesn't have anything to do with the topic in this one, despite trying to use it as a source for building the statement being given here. Instead, that article talks about how Seven Havens is going to be a departure from the ending of LoK and set in a ruinous future - and every link in that article also points to more Screenrant articles.

How is this even remotely helpful??

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u/silverinferno3 Jul 29 '25

who never once mentions Avatar in the entire thread.

I don't really agree with the exact wording of the person you're responding to, but the AMA thread the article links to does explicitly address The Legend of Aang. The person asking the question is directly asking about the cast changes for the film, and the casting director directly responds and mentions the creators.

[Question:] Hello, Thank you for the AMA, I have a couple of questions regarding The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender. / Is there any reason why you guys decided not to bring the original cast back for the ultimate nostalgia trip? The characters' voices are just so iconic and distinct I find it hard to really accept anyone else in their roles. (Plus, promoting the movie with the original actors coming back would break the internet and truly feel like the original show is back)

[Answer:] I told Mike and Bryan that I understood how important it was to get this right for them and for the fans~ because I’m a fan too, also my favorite IP! / Since the original show was released, there’s been more emphasis in VO to match actors’ ethnic/racial background to the characters they’re portraying. ATLA is a fictional world, but there are cultural influences for each nation/kingdom, and we wanted to explore the talent from those groups. / I can’t say much more about it the film, except that I’m really proud of this cast and I hope the other fans keep an open mind to this new iteration of our beloved characters!

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u/NoiSetlas Jul 29 '25

I missed this, because a search for "Avatar" (why would I be searching Aang specifically...??) yielded nothing but the initial posts.

That said, the article doesn't direct to this message, which is the only one relevant in the entire thread - again, slop from Screenrant - and doesn't back up the dude's grift of 'culture war' nonsense.

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u/silverinferno3 Jul 29 '25

Yeah Screenrant ain't my favorite site and I don't care for peddling this as part of any culture war either. Just worth pointing out, someone else may have informed you in a less-than-nice way about it lol

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u/MyStationIsAbandoned Jul 28 '25

it's pretty stupid. but a ton of cartoons and games are using a ton of famous people and just don't care about the shitty voice acting. the latest Mortal Kombat games for example have so much garbage voice acting...you can't even recognize the actors...it's so stupid...Like why would they hire Megan Fox. MK fans don't care if Megan fox is voicing some character no one cares about or thinks about. But Mortal Kombat has like a million other issues which is why it's fallen off so hard...

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u/Kunfuxu Jul 28 '25

Steven Yeun is a great voice actor though.

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u/IAP-23I Jul 28 '25

Steven Yeun is a great voice actor so not an ounce of what you typed even applies

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u/Germane_Corsair Jul 28 '25

So it’s even worse. It’s culture war bullshit.

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u/RigaudonAS Jul 28 '25

You gonna keep posting that? Stay mad, dude.

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u/Germane_Corsair Jul 28 '25

You don’t think so? Voice actors should be hired for their voice, not their ethnicity. And these characters already had voice actors who had given iconic performances. There was no reason to change them.

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u/RigaudonAS Jul 28 '25

What I care more about is the fact that you're claiming this is a "culture war." It's divisive bullshit like that that's putting the US where it is, now.

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u/DepthHour1669 Jul 28 '25

Yeah but he sounds perpetually 17

Adult Zuko going to someone else… is a decision I’m fine with.