Future fire lord Daniel Dae Kim posted a self-deprecating photo from the set of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Kim has been teasing his turn as Fire Lord Ozai, the villainous tyrant who fans first saw on screen in Nickelodeon’s original Avatar series. The animated show aired from 2005 and 2008, and garnered a dedicated fanbase who fell in love with Avatar’s unique mythology and humor. Following a disappointing live-action adaptation from M. Night Shyamalan in 2010, Netflix is taking another crack at the beloved series.
Development on the new Avatar series was announced in 2018. Although original showrunners Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were initially attached to the project, they departed last year citing creative differences. Albert Kim is now helming the project as showrunner. After plenty of fan speculation, the four leads were announced in August–Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, and Dallas Lui as Zuko. In November, Lost alum Daniel Dae Kim joined the cast as Fire Lord Ozai.
With pre-production on Avatar in full effect, Daniel Dae Kim has taken to Instagram to share an on-set photo–while also taking a dig at his own acting abilities. The photo features a comically concerned Kim knocking on a trailer marked “Acting Coach.” “I’ll take all the help I can get!” reads the caption. Check out the actor’s post below:
Click Here to View the Post on Instagram
Kim’s latest post isn’t the only BTS photo to emerge from the Avatar set. Selfies and candid shots have surfaced, too, with the younger cast members training and prepping to shoot. Among these photos was an image of Kim’s face wrapped in plastic, presumably to create prosthetic or artificial burn marks (perennial jokester Kim used the hashtag #bubblehead). His latest upload, however, is the first to cheekily use the location tag “Fire Nation.” Enterprising Avatar fans will surely be savvy enough to follow the tag for any future updates.
Kim’s dispatches from behind the scenes indicate that he’s bringing a sense of humor to set that will certainly offset his nefarious character. As principal photography approaches for Avatar, fans can look forward to Kim’s much-anticipated scenes with his cast members, particularly Dallas Liu and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who is playing Uncle Iroh. Production on Avatar: The Last Airbender began in November and is set to run through May 2022, with no release date currently announced.
Source: Daniel Dae Kim