“I didn’t know the original at all,” Leung, who plays Commander Zhao in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the animated series, told Deadline. “Maybe it’s an age thing but I didn’t know about it. First of all, the audition, you couldn’t tell it was for Avatar, it was kind of disguised as a different project. And when I first heard it was for Avatar I thought I was gonna be blue.”
Plenty of adults are aware of, or even fans of, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Daniel Dae Kim voiced roles on A:TLA and Legend Of Korra before landing the part of Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix’s show). But it’s probably fair to say the younger generation has a stronger connection to the Nickelodeon show. Dallas Liu, who plays Zhao’s rival Prince Zuko, told The A.V. Club that Zuko was his favorite character in the cartoon. “Well, when I was a kid, I always thought bending was the coolest part. That got me interested because I had been doing martial arts since I was five years old. So that was one show where I was just so entertained,” he shared. “Naturally, I really gravitated towards the show. But once I got older and I started paying attention to the dialogue, the plot, and each character’s arc, I was like, this is a damn good show.”
Leung may not have been aware of how damn good the show was, but it worked out for him anyway. “Looking back, I kind of love that I came in blank,” he said to Deadline. “Because when you have ideas you can kind of corrupt a pure process. You come in blank, things will come into it that will inform your playing of it in a way that it might not if you came in with preconceived ideas or plans. So I was grateful for that.”
