The over two-hour concert was composed and arranged by Jeremy Zuckerman with a live orchestra that brought the music to life in front of the Orange County audience. There are the traditional live orchestra instruments including the violins and clarinets, and they are joined by special instruments like the taiko and erhu. There were four vocalists serving as the choir, two for the masculine voices and two for the feminine voices. They’ve helped to enhance the orchestral performances from singing to chanting.

Each character gets their own highlight piece including Aang, Sokka, Katara, Zuko, The Kyoshi Warriors, Jet, and more. There are many fan-favorite characters and groups in Avatar: The Last Airbender and the crowd went wild for many of the characters and moments including the romance between Sokka and Suki and Sokka and Princess Yue.

Aang Becomes the Ocean and Into the Nighttime Sky

My highlights included the dramatic performance of “Aang Becomes Ocean” and the somber track “Into a Nighttime Sky.” Both were emotional, with the former being sad and angry and the latter being peaceful and sweet.

The most tear-jerking moment for me was the performance of “Leaves from the Vine,” a song sung by Mako, who voiced Iroh in the animated series and passed away in 2006. The orchestra performed with a lot of heart and at the end, there was an “In memory of Mako.” (I’m listening to the song right now as I’m typing this and I’m already tearing up.)

One of the funniest moments during the concert was the performance of “Secret Tunnel.” The vocal is taken from the series, but the instrumentals are brought to life by the orchestra epically and hilariously. The crowd was ecstatic when it was introduced, and it was a triumphant way to end the concert.

If you still want to catch Avatar: The Last Airbender in concert in California, tickets are available for Riverside, Sacramento, and San Luis Obispo at https://www.avatarinconcert.com.

Featured image credit: Nerd Reactor

The post Avatar: The Last Airbender Fans Reunite for an Emotional Concert Experience at Segerstrom Center for the Arts appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

April 14th marked the third day of The Paley Center for Media’s TV festival, PaleyFest LA, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The Avatar event started with the first season finale of the show, and once it was over, the cast and crew came to the stage.

Attending the panel for Avatar: The Airbender were Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara), Ian Ousley (Sokka), Dallas Liu (Zuko), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Iroh), Arden Cho (June), Elizabeth Yu (Azula), Albert Kim (showrunner, executive producer, and writer), and Jabbar Raisani (executive producer and director). The panel was moderated by Perri Nemiroff (senior producer at Collider).

Katara is a waterbender who helps Aang on his journey to becoming the Avatar, a powerful being who can help save the world. She has grown a lot from someone who was struggling with her powers as a waterbender into someone who can take on Zuko and the leader of the Northern Water Tribe.

“I think the new confidence that Katara has now going into second season and third is super exciting,” Kiawentiio said during the PaleyFest panel. “I mean, I’m hoping that we get to see more of that and just see more of us together in general.”

Zuko has a close relationship with Uncle Iroh, and they are on a journey together to look for the Avatar, aka Aang.

“I think in our show you really see how close Uncle Iroh and Zuko really are compared to the animated series,” Liu said. “And so I think carrying that over into future scenes of our show… if you watch the original, you know how big some of those moments are at the ending [of season 2] and the beginning of season three. So I’m really stoked for Uncle Iroh and Zuko’s moments in those seasons because I think it’ll hit that much harder because of what we built up in season one.”

In the show, we see Azula having ambitions, and the actor wants to see how that will carry out in the next season.

“My answer would probably be towards the end of season one, I think Azula gains her freedom from the Fire Nations,” Yu said. “She is able to finally reign terror over the rest of the world. I’m excited to finally be able to interact with anyone.”

At the end of the first season, Sokka and Princess Yue had a romantic relationship, but it was cut short when she sacrificed herself to save the world. As a result, this devastated the young Water Tribe member.

“I think for Sokka, he’s just gone through his first catastrophic emotional situation with a love interest, I guess, and he’s had that obviously with family,” Ousley said. “But I think that there’s a lot that he’s going to have to work through that got brought to the surface emotionally.”

Appa is a fan-favorite flying creature, and Cormier wants to see more of their special bond in future seasons.

“In episode one, we see Aang’s relationship with Appa for a little bit,” Cormier said. “And I feel like we’ll get to dive into that more in season two and three. That would be just so amazing.”

The post Netflix’s The Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast on What They Want to See in Season 2 appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The announcement of the second and third seasons will conclude Aang’s story and his adventures in the four nations: Water, Earth, Fire and Air.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a hit on social media, with TikTok’s #AvatarTheLastAirbender hashtag generating 1 billion global views during the first seven days of the series’ release.

More details about Season 2 and 3 will be revealed at a later date including episode counts.

About Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.

The show is executive produced and written by showrunner Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) with Jabbar Raisani (Lost in Space, Stranger Things) and Michael Goi as executive producers and directors and Roseanne Liang (co-executive producer) and Jet Wilkinson as directors. Dan Lin (The Lego Movie, Aladdin) and Lindsey Liberatore (Walker) serve as executive producers from Rideback.

The series stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Ken Leung as Zhao, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai.

Featured image courtesy of Netflix

The post Avatar: The Last Airbender Gets Renewed for Season 2 and 3 on Netflix appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Nerd Reactor and The Nerds of Color had the chance to chat with the cast and crew from the show during the world premiere red carpet about their embarrassing stories and favorite moments behind the scenes. Talent included Dallas Liu (Zuko), Kiawentiio (Katara), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Iroh), Elizabeth Yu (Azula), Amber Midthunder (Princess Yue), Sebastian Amouruso (Jet), showrunner Albert Kim, and more. Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph) and Jack De Sena (Sokka) from the animated series were also in attendance.

“I actually haven’t said this before, but the day that Dallas and I had this one scene on set was actually really fun because we don’t get to be working together a lot,” Elizabeth Yu said. “And I wish I could go into more detail. But yeah, there was just like – we just had a lot of fun. He’s really silly and goofy, and he will never admit that. But knowing him, he’s just the best guy. So that was really a fun day. Perfect.”

Daniel Dae Kim plays Fire Lord Ozai, the ruler of the Fire Nation. The cast was asked to do their best Ozai glare. Check it out below.

“Okay, so the costumes are fantastic on the show, absolutely stunning,” said Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. “Farnaz [Khaki-Sadigh], who is the costume designer, really did a deep cut into the lore of Avatar, recreating those looks and really did something sublime from the color usage to the material to expanding upon that and making really, really fine rich details.

“That being said, although they were tailored to us so that we could move, act and perform in them, they were very heavy. And they were very, very difficult to take off when we needed to go to the bathroom. Now, I heard that they got a zipper for Daniel, which was great. DDK wants a zipper, they gave him a zipper. I didn’t know we could ask for zippers. So I had about 1000 buttons, and these big pants that came up to here that you had to strap on and then a belt, and then three robes over it. And so going to the bathroom was sometimes an exercise in like, ‘Okay, how do we make this work?’ And yeah, there was a time where I really had to go. I rushed back to my trailer, and I needed help getting out of the costume. And it’s always really embarrassing when you say, ‘Can you help me take off my pants so I can go pee?’ And so after a certain while, I just sort of figured out another system where we just lift up one of the legs and just do it commando style.”

You can check out the rest of the interviews in the video below.

About Avatar: The Last Airbender

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a live-action reimagining of the award-winning and beloved Nickelodeon animated series. Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Jabbar Raisani (Lost in Space, Stranger Things) and Michael Goi are executive producers and directors alongside directors Roseanne Liang (also a co-executive producer) and Jet Wilkinson. Dan Lin (The Lego Movie, Aladdin) and Lindsey Liberatore (Walker) serve as executive producers from Rideback.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is now available to stream on Netflix.

The post The Cast of Netflix’s Avatar on Embarrassing Stories and Fave Moments Behind the Scenes appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The Netflix series is scheduled to be released on February 22nd and stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai. It will consist of 8 one-hour episodes.

About Avatar: The Last Airbender

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a live-action reimagining of the award-winning and beloved Nickelodeon animated series. Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow, Nikita) serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer. Jabbar Raisani (Lost in Space, Stranger Things) and Michael Goi are executive producers and directors alongside directors Roseanne Liang (also a co-executive producer) and Jet Wilkinson. Dan Lin (The Lego Movie, Aladdin) and Lindsey Liberatore (Walker) serve as executive producers from Rideback.

Here is the list of directors and the episodes they have worked on:

• Michael Goi (101, 102)
• Jabbar Raisani (103, 104)
• Roseanne Liang (105, 106)
• Jet Wilkinson (107, 108)

Here’s the list of writers and the episodes they have worked on:

• Albert Kim and Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko (101)
• Joshua Hale Fialkov (102)
• Christine Boylan (103)
• Keely MacDonald (104)
• Gabriel Llanas (105)
• Teleplay by Emily Kim & Hunter Ries and Bryan Konietzko, Story By Ubah Mohamed and Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino (106)
• Audrey Wong Kennedy (107)
• Albert Kim (108)

The series was composed by Takeshi Furukawa and was filmed on location in British Columbia.

Featured image credit: Netflix.

The post Netflix Releases Epic Trailer for Live-Action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’! appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

To celebrate the Winter Solstice, Netflix has today debuted six new photos from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The new images feature Gordon Cormier as Aang, Arden Cho as June, Danny Pudi as The Mechanist, Sebastian Amoruso as Jet, Maria Zhang as Suki, Tamlyn Tomita as Yukari, and Casey Camp-Horinket as Gran Gran.

About Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender will premiere on February 22, 2024. It will consist of 8 one-hour episodes.

Synopsis: Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope.

But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas James Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.

Showrunner Albert Kim is the executive producer and writer. Jabbar Raisani and Michael Goi are executive producers and directors with Roseanne Liang as a director and co-executive producer and Jet Wilkinson as a director. Also joining as executive producers are Dan Lin and Lindsey Liberatore.

The series stars Gordon Cormier, Ian Ousley, Kiawentiio, Dallas Liu, Ken Leung, Elizabeth Yu with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Daniel Dae Kim.

The live-action show is based on the Nickelodeon animated series.

The post Netflix Reveals Stunning Avatar: The Last Airbender Photos Featuring Aang and the Cast appeared first on Nerd Reactor.