It’s been more than two years since the first season of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” dropped on Netflix, but you might think it’s been even longer when you first see Aang in Season 2, now streaming.
“You shot up like a bamboo sprout!” Suki remarks when she and Aang are reunited in the premiere, a nod to actor Gordon Cormier’s considerable growth spurt since we last saw him on screen. Gordon, now 16, was only 12 years old when cameras started rolling on Season 1.
“To me, he’s always a baby — he’s our baby,” showrunner Christine Boylan tells TVLine. “We try to play everything very grounded, human, and real. Suki hasn’t seen Aang since Kyoshi Island, so when she sees him, he really has had a growth spurt. Through Suki’s point of view, we get to say a thing that the audience might be feeling. It’s important to us to have the character’s voice, what’s authentic to them, and have the audience kind of meet the characters where they are, then they take that journey together. So Suki is being very truthful in that moment.”
Adds showrunner Jabbar Raisani, It’s funny, even when we’re doing ADR for Season 1, Gordon’s voice had dropped. I was like, ‘Oh, your voice has changed, my friend.’ So we knew it was coming. We’re not trying to hide it. We’re growing, and we have real humans that we’re making the show with, so let’s lean in.”
Aang ‘has gone through puberty’ between seasons, Gordon Cormier says
Actor Gordon Cormier admits that playing Aang in Season 2 did feel different from playing him in Season 1, but he also appreciates how much he has grown with the character.
“There was just so much time in between the two seasons, so Ang is almost a completely new person,” Cormier tells TVLine. “Like, he’s gone through puberty. It’s crazy.”
As Cormier describes his character, Aang is “a little bit older and a little bit stronger, so we’re kind of just carrying that into the new flow of the next couple of seasons.” (Netflix has already renewed “Avatar: The Last Airbender” for a third and final season.)
Gordon Cormier’s growth spurt was actually ‘lucky’ for Avatar: The Last Airbender
As luck would have it, Gordon Cormier’s growth spurt actually works in the show’s favor, the showrunners explain. The second season of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which is based on “Book 2” of the original Nickelodeon cartoon, is considerably darker than Season 1, forcing Aang and his friends to confront greater physical and emotional challenges.
“The things they’re dealing with are getting more complicated and complex, and him being older helps us deal with that in a more truthful and honest way,” Jabbar Raisani tells TVLine.
“Season 2 was always going to be darker-themed,” adds Christine Boylan. “In every trilogy, the second leg is the darkest one. So we just got lucky.”
OK, let’s talk: Were you surprised to see how much Aang has grown since Season 1? And how far into your Season 2 binge are you? Drop a comment with your thoughts on the show’s return below.
