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Avatar: The Last Airbender casts George Takei, Arden Cho, Danny Pudi, and more

George Takei, Arden Cho, and Danny Pudi are joining the four nations.

The trio are among the numerous cast additions to Netflix's upcoming live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Takei will portray Koh, one of the most ancient and knowledgeable spirits in the Spirit World, while Cho and Pudi will portray characters from the Earth Kingdom: June, a tough and persistent bounty hunter, and The Mechanist, an eccentric inventor and engineer raising his son in a war-torn world, respectively.

Other cast additions include Amber Midthunder as Princess Yue, the compassionate spiritual leader of the Water Tribe; Momona Tamada as Ty Lee, an upbeat teen and one of Princess Azula's (set to be played by Elizabeth Yu) best friends; Utkarsh Ambudkar as King Bumi, the ancient and mercurial ruler of the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu; and Randall Duk Kim as Wan Shi Tong, the Spirit of Knowledge who appears in the form of an owl.

George Takei
George Takei

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images; Kevin Winter/Getty Images George Takei; Arden Cho; Danny Pudi

A Martinez, Irene Bedard, Joel Oulette, Nathaniel Arcand, Meegwun Fairbrother, Lucian-River Chauhan, James Sie, Thalia Tran, Ruy Iskandar, Hiro Kanagawa, C.S. Lee, François Chau, and Ryan Mah round out the new additions. Previously announced cast members include Gordon Cormier as Aang; Kiawentiio as Katara; Ian Ousley as Sokka; Dallas Liu as Zuko; Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh; Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai; Maria Zhang as Suki, Tamlyn Tomita as Yukari; Yvonne Chapman as Avatar Kyoshi, and Casey Camp-Horinek as Gran Gran.

Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) will serve as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore, and Michael Goi will also executive produce, while Goi, Roseanne Liang, Jabbar Raisani, and Jet Wilkinson will direct. The series, Kim told Tudum, is a "chance to showcase Asian and Indigenous characters as living, breathing people — not just in a cartoon, but in a world that truly exists, very similar to the one we live in."

Netflix's live-action isn't the only Avatar project in the works: Avatar Studios is developing three animated Avatar films, and the first of which will focus on Avatar Aang and his friends.

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