Avatar: The Last Airbender Star Explains Why the Cast Reunited in 2021
One Avatar: The Last Airbender star explained why the cast reunited this year! Late last year fans [...]
One Avatar: The Last Airbender star explained why the cast reunited this year! Late last year fans of the franchise were taken by surprise when Dante Basco, who provides the voice of Zuko in the animated series, announced that he and several other stars from the fan favorite series would be having a reunion this year. With Avatar: The Last Airbender currently experiencing a new wave of popularity with its release on streaming platforms such as Netflix and CBS All Access, it only made sense for the cast to come together again in such a way to celebrate the series on January 9th.
As Basco explained to Entertainment Weekly, the Avatar: The Last Airbender reunion came about this year not only because of the series' fandom, but also because he wanted to alleviate some of his worries during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with Twitch streams bringing on some of his former co-stars, the reunion started to form right after.
First Basco opened up about how he reunited with Zach Tyler Eisen, the voice behind Aang who has since retired from acting following Avatar: The Last Airbender's initial release: "When we did the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender on my Twitch, he just popped in for a second, Basco began, "And so I was like, 'I really want you to reunite with the whole Gaang."
Continuing further Basco explained, "A lot of us, we do cons together around the world and we're all still in industry working… and so I was like 'You gotta join the world. It's really fun.' He's like 'I'd love to." I was like 'Cool, let's do a reunion. And then once you do the reunion, just run with it. Welcome back. We're back, the Gaang's back together.'"
Speaking to why a reunion made sense for this current time, "If you look in the show, it's a time of unrest and imbalance in the world of Avatar," Basco said. "It's this group of kids trying to find the balance in the world. And I think collectively, the world, we're all in the Gaang, we're in this group of kids going, 'How can we find balance in the world right now?' And that's part of the charm. There are so many lessons that still are relevant today."
Avatar: The Last Airbender is still running as a franchise with a new live-action adaptation currently in the works at Netflix. While the adaptation has yet to update fans on its progress since original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko publicly exited the series last year. What do you think?
Would you want to see another Avatar: The Last Airbender reunion when the pandemic is settled down more? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!