Picture Credits: Netflix
Over two years after it debuted on Netflix, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is back for Season 2. Ahead of our return to the Four Nations on June 25, stars Gordon Cormier (Aang) and newcomer Miya Cech (Toph) have teased an “action-packed” season that will push the audience to tear.
In 2024, Netflix released a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s beloved fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender. While the iconic cartoon had previously been adapted for live-action, notably in the 2010 film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Netflix’s remake stands out as the most successful attempt. As a series, it allows for larger narrative development and exploration, although it did naturally have to condense the plot of the cartoon, which meant some moments and storylines were dropped. It also took on a darker, grittier tone, which helped it appeal to a wider audience of fantasy fans, not just the younger demographic or those who grew up with the animated series.
Two weeks after the premiere of Season 1, Netflix renewed Avatar for two more seasons, which would see it through to its natural conclusion with Season 3. Both subsequent seasons began filming back-to-back and officially wrapped up in November 2025. Season 2 adapts the cartoon’s Book 2: Earth story arc, which sees Aang head deeper into the Earth Kingdom in search of a master capable of teaching him how to bend earth. He finds his master in fan-favorite Toph Beifong (Miya Cech), a young, blind, and sharp-witted fighter who joins the team on their journey into the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se (which most certainly isn’t at war).
Note: The following quotes were provided courtesy of an interview conducted with Netflix.
Gordon Cormier (Aang) Teases Season 2 and What’s In Store
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Gordon Cormier as Aang in season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Katie Yu/Netflix © 2026
Gordon Cormier has been on one wild journey with Avatar. He was just 11 years old when he was cast as Aang, and 12 to 13 years old during filming. Headlining an adaptation on the scale of Avatar is no easy feat, but he stands today as a 16-year-old, having wrapped up all three seasons and excited to see them land on Netflix. “I know we have such a passionate fan base, so I was really happy with the response we’ve gotten,” Cormier told Netflix. “Shooting Season 1, I was 12, so I don’t really remember too much, but it’s the really fun memories that stick with you.”
“I remember for the press tour, reuniting with them all was super awesome, but we didn’t really know if we were getting Seasons 2 or 3, and now having both, it’s really great knowing I’m going to be able to see them again for a while,” he added.
After Season 1 introduced us to the characters and depicted the first part of Aang’s journey, the next batch of episodes delves even deeper as the war rages on. This means more action and more devastating consequences. “I mean, this season is definitely going to be a lot more action-packed and emotional,” he teased. I feel they took the script a little bit darker while keeping the fun elements of the show. There are going to be some scenes that are going to be pushing the audience to tears but also making them laugh.”
Obviously, while Cormier has grown from a child actor to a young man, we also see that play out with Aang at the start of the season. It kicks off with a time jump montage. “There’s quite a bit of a time jump, and I’ve aged up a bit,” he said. “We actually see Aang growing up in between Season 1 and 2, and that’s where we start with that montage. I thought that was a really cool way of starting the season. At the end of Season 1, Aang finally accepts that he’s the Avatar. Through the training montage, we see how hard Aang is training and how badly he wants to learn waterbending. Then, once he encounters Toph, he really starts trying for earthbending, and while he’s not great at it, he’ll figure it out eventually. I feel like he’s just so motivated this season, and that’s what it’s about — pushing to become the Avatar”
This season takes us behind the walls of the Earth Kingdom capital, Ba Sing Se. It’s a bustling city of immense scale. According to Cormier, the sets were glorious. “Ba Sing Se is so cool, it’s so layered. We have the Upper Ring, the Lower Ring, the Middle Ring, and we actually got to work with all those sets, which was amazing. My favorite part about the Earth Kingdom this season was my journey with Long Feng,” he said. “We kind of see them bit by bit because Ba Sing Se actually came from Kudi Village, which is now the Upper Ring. So they kind of transformed from set to set. I feel like my jaw is on the floor every time I walk to set because something will be different. I remember the first time I walked into Kudi Village — it was giant. The Avatar Villa is huge and all, but when you go outside and you see the outdoor sets, it’s just amazing what they do.”
Miya Cech on Introducing Toph And What We Can Expect
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Miya Cech as Toph in season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Katie Yu/Netflix © 2025
Obviously, the most anticipated thing this season is the arrival of fan-favorite Toph Beifong, played by Miya Cech. “Toph is a very headstrong young girl,” she teased. She’s also very physically strong. She’s an earthbender. She was raised in a very noble family, but when you actually get to know her, she turns out to be very tomboyish. She reminds me of a middle school boy in a way. She has little to no filter, which means that she’s very blunt and funny. She is just very headstrong and very opinionated — which is good.”
When the casting team offered Miya Cech the role of Toph, they were not only hiring a talented young actress but also a lifelong Avatar fan. “I grew up with the series as a kid,” Cech recalled. “When I was 10 years old, I did an interview where someone asked me if I would want to play Toph should there ever be a live-action series because I looked like her. It was one of those situations where I was like, ‘This is so far-fetched, but yeah, I’d love to play Toph.’ And then it happened. It’s crazy.”
The role is tough in a number of ways: of course, there’s the pressure of playing such a beloved character, but also the physical strain of having to learn martial arts (for instance, earthbending takes heavy inspiration from renowned Kung Fu style Hung Gar). “When I got here, we did six weeks of training with our stunt team. We learned a lot of martial arts. I personally had training with Joe Strechay who was my incredible blindness consultant. He gave me a very good education on the blindness community and people withlow vision. This helped me portray the character accurately on screen, because I am not blind or low vision and will never know what it is like.”
Toph’s blindness is one of the biggest aspects of her character — she’s literally known as the Blind Bandit — and so depicting that was undoubtedly a challenge. However, the show hired blindness consultant Joe Strechay, who previously worked on Daredevil, to assist her in her portrayal of blindness.”Learning how to portray a congenitally blind character was honestly one of the biggest insecurities I had about this role,” she admitted. “I was so interested and a little nervous to know how that was going to be perceived as a sighted actor. But Joe, my blindness consultant, is amazing. He worked on Daredevil, with sighted actors before, and we were really leaning into getting an education about it. I’ve also learned a lot of skills that I can use in my regular life through his training.”
All in all, Miya Cech greatly impressed her peers and co-stars. It’s never easy joining an established team, not least as a beloved character, but she slotted in seamlessly.”She brings a lot, honestly,” Cormier said of her. “She’s been killing it. She shows up professional, lines always memorized, and she’s playing Toph the way I, as a fan, pictured it, so I’m really stoked. I’m also a fan of the animated series, so this is really cool.”
“I’m really excited for people to see the new dynamic of our whole little crew after it expands with Toph,” Cormier added.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 debuts June 25 on Netflix.
