Ken Leung Had His Avatars Crossed

Television

Ken Leung is starring as Admiral Zhao in Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake that premiered this week. The only problem is that he thought he was auditioning for James Cameron’s Avatar film series. Check out a brief clip of Leung explaining the casting process and his confusion about which franchise he was dealing with here, courtesy of Deadline:

Before #AvatarNetflix debuts on Thursday, get familiar with the cast. In this clip, Ken Leung tells us about his character (Commander Zhao) and how he landed the role pic.twitter.com/KTMMu8l337

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) February 20, 2024

This is somewhat funny and somewhat frustrating. As Leung states, his confusion may be due to his age; he wouldn’t have been in Avatar’s target demographic twenty years ago. I personally saw the show years later, after it had been over for a while, and I don’t usually care who something is intended for if it appeals to me. So I sometimes forget an older man who doesn’t have children (as Leung didn’t at the time) wouldn’t necessarily seek out a cartoon on Nickelodeon, and in most cases, I would agree that it isn’t worth it. But they have some other gems here and there. Regardless, I haven’t watched Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender yet for time reasons. I will, although I don’t expect to like it. It’ll be interesting to see how Leung interprets Jason Isaacs’ character from the original since he doesn’t have that context.