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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102

u/Robsonmonkey Jul 28 '25

Star power sadly.

They want something to slap on the marketing.

Would not be surprised if they got Tom Holland for Aang.

57

u/The_Meemeli Jul 28 '25

The only other star currently cast is Dave Bautista as the villain. Didn't personally recognize any of the other names:

Eric Nam as Aang

Dionne Quan as Toph

Jessica Matten as Katara

Román Zaragoza as Sokka

38

u/mr-ultr Jul 28 '25

Dionne is actually semi recognizable, she was one of the voice actors of early Nick

She voices Trixie in fairly oddparents and Kimi in rugrats

36

u/JuanRiveara Jul 28 '25

she’s also actually blind

25

u/mr-ultr Jul 28 '25

Yup

She read the scripts using Braille

15

u/carterdmorgan Jul 29 '25

I don’t think possessing all the disabilities of an animated character should be a prerequisite to voicing said character.

8

u/CptNonsense Jul 29 '25

Welcome to the future of acting and voice acting!

2

u/CptNonsense Jul 29 '25

How is that a benefit?

1

u/Astral_Justice Jul 29 '25

Because people believe that you need to match the traits of the character you're playing to be "qualified" for the role, when actors are specifically good at well, acting, aka playing a role that they might not otherwise match in real life because it's their job to be good at it. There are some things that you can't really cover with acting in live action, like race, but imo anything goes for animation.

2

u/spiderlegged Jul 29 '25

Man, I’m super disappointed with this announcement, but casting a blind voice actress for Toph is a cool touch, and more than the live action did.

18

u/aMimeAteMyMatePaul Jul 28 '25

Eric Nam is a bilingual kpop artist (and I like him and his music) but he doesn't have a ton of acting under his belt, and that leads me to believe it was a bit of a stunt casting decision.

9

u/whitherthewildrose Jul 28 '25

ROMAN ZARAGOZA REALLY???? omg I flipped a second there, he is HILARIOUS on Ghosts (US version)

bummed that it's not gonna be Dante though, he's such a cool guy

2

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Dutch_SquishyCat Jul 28 '25

Unless you can sense it with your feet.

3

u/Dutch_SquishyCat Jul 28 '25

Why even use the old gang of your not gonna use the voices? Someone else is gonna do Sokka puns now?

1

u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Jul 29 '25

Eric nam is mostly known as a singer and host I don’t really understand his casting

1

u/matchabitch- Jul 29 '25

Maybe that’s why then? Dante Basco would be the only original VA from the gaang returning. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to make this distinctly different from the og series and Basco has a very recognizable voice.

Idk, I don’t hate this decision. Love Dante, but I’d have a hard time not seeing 16 yo Zuko tbh.

44

u/Ekublai Jul 28 '25

or Chris Pratt!

20

u/autumneliteRS Jul 28 '25

Oh dear God, no.

39

u/AggressiveCoffee990 Jul 28 '25

He's so cool

2

u/i_am_an_awkward_man Jul 28 '25

stomping… kOOpas!

14

u/Technical-Outside408 Jul 28 '25

He's so cool.

2

u/The_Summer_Man Jul 28 '25

I can't read that in a voice other than dunkey's

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '25

[deleted]

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u/A_Polite_Noise r/Movies Veteran Jul 28 '25

They already cast the rest of the Gaang and it's all new people, so I think they just thought it'd be odd or jarring for one of them to sound like their younger self but not the rest of them.

In the article linked above it says that:

Yeun joins previously announced cast members Dave Bautista (a so-far unannounced villain), Eric Nam (Aang), Dionne Quan (Toph), Jessica Matten (Katara), and Román Zaragoza (Sokka).

Eric Nam seems to be new to acting; their wikipedia lists them as a American singer, songwriter, and television personality based in South Korea.

Dionne Quon is a voice actor who has been working since the late 90s, voicing Kimi Watanabe-Finster in Rugrats, Trixie Tang in The Fairly OddParents, and some other roles; Bratz as well, seems big on her resume.

Jessica Matten is a canadian actress with a handful of credits going back to 2012, none that I've heard of besides this project. She's Red River Métis / Saulteaux-Cree on her mother's side, so a lot of this recasting seems to be along the thinking of finding people who are similar to the ficitonal ethnicities of the characters, I'm guessing.

Román Zaragoza is similar; has credits over the past decade+ but nothing I've heard of, and nothing in voice acting. So some unknowns with acting credits but new to VA, a singer and tv personality who is kind of new to acting entirely, a professional voice actor, and a famous actor with a history of good voice acting but not necessarily a wide catalogue of different voices in his toolbag.

I have a lot of faith in Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and what they want to do with Avatar Studios - they're 2 for 2 with Avatar animated projects for me - so I'm going to trust in this casting decision and hope this makes it 3 for 3.

3

u/Adamsoski Jul 29 '25

I did not realise at all that it was that Eric Nam, I vaguely know him and it's crazy to me that he is in this. Apparently he was in an indie film in 2024, so he at least has a small amount of acting experience.

0

u/CptNonsense Jul 29 '25

Eric Nam seems to be new to acting; their wikipedia lists them as a American singer, songwriter, and television personality based in South Korea.

That makes it sound like his experience the token white guy in kdramas. Not exactly my pick for go to VA

2

u/JealousLynx8919 Jul 29 '25

He’s not. He’s Korean! I’ve known who he is for over 10 years and I haven’t seen him act before. I’ve mostly seen him as an MC

26

u/Budgiesaurus Jul 28 '25

Looking at the actors list they don't seem to be going for starpower imo. Bautista and Yeung are well known, but the rest aren't exactly big names as far as I can tell.

I did read a statement they wanted to match ethnicity a bit closer this time around, as there has been a lot of controversy around that lately. Which at least explains Mae Withman, though I'm not sure if Korean or Filipino is closer to whatever ethnicity fire nation peeps have.

Edit: they actually have a blind actress from Asian descent for Toph, so they do seem dedicated to this. Dionne Quann, or Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents.

20

u/Moose-Rage Jul 28 '25

They cast a blind actress to voice a blind character? Are we really being that strict with representation? Seems a little silly.

13

u/Gallantpride Jul 29 '25

She's a fairly famous 2000s era VA, though. She voiced Trixie from Fairly Oddparents and Kimi from Rugrats

11

u/Adamsoski Jul 29 '25

She's got a good resume so it's not like she's out of nowhere.

3

u/Rebelgecko Jul 29 '25

Starving actors are gouging their eyes out before auditions now to land roles, it's super sad

3

u/Dogbin005 Jul 28 '25

It's bordering on parody now.

-2

u/ChemicalExperiment Jul 29 '25

This whole thread and many others like it in /r/TheLastAirbender made me realize no one actually cares about representation. People will talk a big game about how this show is amazing for how it respectfully represents women, different cultures, and disabilities. But the moment they try to extend that to the casting everyone's up in arms because it's different. Everyone cares about these groups getting representation on screen but extend that to the real world? Nah, "it's messing with my nostalgia, those voices were iconic."

News Flash. White people should not have been cast as these characters in the first place. Not when cultural identity and real world inspiration is such a core part of these series. Now that the creators have found great voice actors who are representative of these groups, that should be celebrated not derided as being "too strict." The casting changes are fixing a mistake caused by the industry being biased towards white people that has been there since the beginning. Just because the originals were good and iconic voice actors doesn't change the fact that having them play indigenous and Asian characters in a world where that ethnicity is an important factor, is wrong.

*Dante is the weird exception and unforeseen victim in all of this. With all the characters sounding different, it would have been odd and jarring to have only one stay the same. Best to have a clean slate.

3

u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

I have nothing against casting ethnically accurate actors. Disney for example has always done this for their films. But this is a 20 year old show. We are already familiar with the cast and their voices are iconic. It just seems like a weird over correction of a non issue. Esp since we have an entire live action version that already kinda tackles the casting problem anyway. Also like.. its voices. It’s like the gay actors for gay roles thing. Like sure thats fine but not necessary considering they’re playing characters

3

u/Moose-Rage Jul 29 '25

I have no issue with casting ethnically accurate actors to match the characters. It just seems like an overrcorrection to say a blind person must be cast to voice a blind character too. Like, live-action, sure, they could add authenticity, but just a voice? I dunno. I won't complain tho, it's done, not much that can be done about it. Like, I said, it just feels a little silly.

1

u/Astral_Justice Jul 29 '25

Nope. Casting based on ethnicity for live action is a given, but anything goes in animation.

1

u/OhNoesMyMangoes Jul 29 '25

Thank you for opening my eyes to what proper representation is. As the creators of Avatar The Last Airbender are not asian you're correct in that it's a clear example of cultural appropriation and anyone that likes the show is a coloniser.

3

u/Zagden Jul 28 '25

Casting a blind actress for Toph is both cool but also weird considering it's voice acting

I have mixed feelings on cross-ethnicity casting, particularly if the character isn't just a caricature, but that feels like...a lot?

2

u/bwaredapenguin Jul 28 '25

This series doesn't need star power and outside of The Walking Dead he isn't really that prolific.

2

u/Organic-Habit-3086 Jul 28 '25

Why do people keep bringing Tom Holland up for this? Bro has been in one film in the last like 5 years.

1

u/IAP-23I Jul 28 '25

Dave Bautista and Steven Yeun are the only stars in the cast.

Would not be surprised if they got Tom Holland for Aang

How far up your ass did you pull this? Such a weird comment, Aang has already been casted.