Daniel Dae Kim joins Avatar: The Last Airbender series as Fire Lord Ozai

Netflix is busy developing their live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and they’ve finally found their Fire Lord Ozai. Daniel Dae Kim, best known for his work on Lost and Hawaii Five-0, has joined the Avatar series as the ruthless leader of the Fire Nation.

Fire Lord Ozai is the “ruthlessly-driven leader of the Fire Nation who he demands everyone live up to his impossible standards, especially his teenaged son, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu). Ozai’s drive to conquer and unite the world under firebender rule is a family burden—he believes that it’s his destiny to finish a war started by his ancestors.” This actually won’t be Daniel Dae Kim’s first role in the Avatar franchise as he previously voiced General Fong in the animated series as well as an Avatar video game. He also voiced Hiroshi Sato in multiple episodes of The Legend of Korra. The actor joins a cast that already includes Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dalla Liu as Zuko.

Albert Kim, who serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer on the live-action Avatar series, has previously said that he hopes the series breaks new ground in terms of representation of actors of Asian or Indigenous backgrounds. “A live-action version would establish a new benchmark in representation and bring in a whole new generation of fans,” Kim said. “This was a chance to showcase Asian and Indigenous characters as living, breathing people. Not just in a cartoon, but in a world that truly exists, very similar to the one we live in.“

Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were once involved in the series, but they officially exited the production due to creative differences last summer. “Many of you have been asking me for updates about the ‘Avatar’ live-action Netflix series,” DiMartino wrote in a blog post. “I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production.” The pair had signed on as executive producers and showrunners, but apparently “things did not go as we had hoped.“