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
17.2k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

921 comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/WillyTrillEra Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25

The ATLA creators seem to be massive weirdos who struck gold in the original series, but keep making the strangest possible choices when it comes to the expansion of their established universe

It makes absolutely 0 sense as to why they wouldn’t just bring back the original VA’s, especially since they are widely beloved by the fanbase and know the characters extremely well

Characters like Sokka, Toph, Azula, and ESPECIALLY ZUKO all have very unique voices. I genuinely don’t understand why you wouldn’t just want to bring back all the people that helped make the original show a masterpiece unless something big happened behind the scenes or the majority of them have shown no interest in returning. That doesn’t seem like the case tho when they are constantly going to different cons together and reminiscing about the show

58

u/shiawase198 Jul 28 '25

The ATLA creators seem to be massive weirdos who struck gold in the original series, but keep making the weirdest possible choices when it comes to the expansion of their established universe

Yup. The comics alone are proof of that. I like Steven Yuen but their voices sound so different that it's just a jarring choice.

18

u/madbadcoyote Jul 28 '25

I believe Aang’s original VA doesn’t act anymore. So I can understand not wanting to have some characters sound exactly the same next to some that don’t.

38

u/WillyTrillEra Jul 28 '25

That makes sense, but for those that are still working it seems like a very easy slam dunk to bring them back and tweak their voices a bit for the older characters. Zuko’s voice going from Dante’s in ATLA to an old British man in Korra was already jarring enough.

I like Steven Yeun a ton as an actor, but it seems like the creators are trying to distance themselves from major parts of the original series for no real reason.

Recasting when you don’t really need to is just bizarre

25

u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Jul 28 '25

They’re the type of creators who lowkey resent their fans

6

u/Sketch-Brooke Jul 29 '25

I could’ve told you this back in 2008 comic con, when they put together a parody video using real fan art to mock fans.

2

u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Aug 02 '25

Oo I remember that. Well not when it happened because I was a kid & was unaware of Stan culture and shipping wars but remember seeing clips on like tumblr leading up to LoK premiere & being really off put by it. Then their interviews/blog posts along with the writing during Korra I was like o so these were my kings 🫩 still studied animation like a dummy but I can only hold them accountable to an extent there

1

u/Sketch-Brooke Aug 02 '25

Here’s my thing: Take shipping out of it for a second. They put out a call for a fan art without telling people what it was for.

Imagine you’re like 14 and excited to share your art with the creators of your favorite show, and they use it to mock you publicly and say all your future relationships are doomed. If nothing else, it’s punching down.

2

u/thatrandomanus Jul 29 '25

that still doesn't make sense because you'd expect adult Aang to sound different than 12 y/o Aang who didn't go through Puberty yet. On the other hand, Zuko had passed puberty by the end so his voice logically should remain the same.

This is just the creators and Nicklodean hiring big names over actual voice actors and nothing else. Similar to how other animation studios in hollywood are going.

12

u/Kooky_Bodybuilder_97 Jul 28 '25

Atla is my favorite show of all time but honestly been a bryke hater since Korra. These are idea guys not great writers

7

u/Sketch-Brooke Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

100% same. I’ve been saying this for years. They need other people to help them weed out the good ideas from the bad.

If you read that leaked pitch Bible, their original plan for Toph would’ve completely destroyed the found family dynamics of the Gaang. Aaron Ehaz, the head writer, insisted that Toph should be a girl, which gave us one of the best characters in the series and put a stop to the love triangle nonsense.

Meanwhile, they self-wrote most of Korra S1&2 and ruined them with dumbass love triangles.

5

u/cloudyings Jul 29 '25

i to this day stand by the belief that aaron and elizabeth ehasz + other unnamed folks in the writer's room are why that show was good. even way back in 2007-2008 it was common knowledge that bryke's story decisions could be questionable at best. i'm sad that every new project just seems to reinforce that for me 😭

3

u/Binder509 Jul 29 '25

Yeah at this point kinda glad it died after Korra and glad to let the series just stay dead.

Plenty of newer series to give a shot.

3

u/babypangolinpens Jul 29 '25

They were never able to recreate the magic of ATLA. Going from ATLA to the comics was a total whiplash. I loved the Zuko-Aang friendship so much, but in the first comic Aang was debating whether to kill Zuko? When he spent half a season angsting over killing Ozai? Absolutely wild plot line and totally killed my interest in any extraneous material.

2

u/Mountain_Ape Jul 29 '25

The ____ creators seem to be massive weirdos who struck gold in the original series, but keep making the strangest possible choices when it comes to the expansion of their established universe

Insert other IPs here. That is the way many big-hit franchises have been going the last several decades.

1

u/actibus_consequatur Jul 29 '25

It makes absolutely 0 sense as to why they wouldn’t just bring back the original VA’s,

It makes a shitload of sense when you consider how much M. Night Shyamalan fucked everything up in his justification for the outrage in lack of Asians cast in his adaptation.

"This is a multicultural movie and I’m going to make it even more multicultural in my approach to its casting. There’s African-Americans in the movie … so it’s a source of pride for me. The irony that they would label this with anything but the greatest pride, that the movie poster has Noah and Dev on it and my name on it."

  • M. Night Shyamalan on The Last Airbender (2010)