Avatar: The Last Airbender star Jack De Sena, who voiced Sokka in the original show, says that he likes the “Zukka” ship fans have created between his character and Prince Zuko. The ship has gained significant traction in more recent years, especially following the renewed interest in the series after it came to Netflix in the summer of 2020. Since Avatar was one of the original shows to feature heavy shipping online, it’s fun to see that fans are still so passionate about their favorite characters.
Shipping, or the act of pushing for two fictional characters to be in a romantic relationship with one another, has existed for decades, going back as far as the famous Star Trek Kirk/Spock ship in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, the naming conventions and fan culture around shipping didn’t start to fully materialize until the late 1990s and early 2000s. Avatar had several major fan ships during its run, with the competing “Kataang” (Katara and Aang) and “Zutara” (Zuko and Katara) being the two dominant ones. However, they're far from the only Avatar: The Last Airbender ships to have gained major steam in the community.
One ship to have risen up more recently is the “Zukka” ship between Zuko and Sokka, which the latter character’s voice actor says he’s a fan of. Appearing on the Braving the Elements podcast hosted by Korra voice actor Janet Varney and Zuko voice actor Dante Basco, De Sena said that he “enjoys” the Zukka ship, and listed it among his favorite ships from the franchise when asked. He also threw in some support for the classic Zutara ship. “I kinda do feel like Zutara, in a lot of ways, I do support Zutara," De Sena said. "I’m enjoying the growing presence of Zukka shipping. I’m enjoying that.”
Technically speaking, the Zukka ship has never been proved to not be canon, unlike Zutara. It’s never been made clear who the mother of Zuko’s daughter Izumi is, or who he was with leading up to her birth. Similarly, Sokka’s long-term adult relationships have remained a canonical mystery, though he stays in a committed relationship with Suki in all the comics that have been released so far.
With lots of new Avatar movies and shows coming from Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios, there could be hope yet for all the fans whose ships have yet to be confirmed or denied. The franchise has broken ground before by canonizing relationships between LGBTQ+ characters, and with the new studio now granted a heightened level of creative independence from the rest of Nickelodeon, Avatar could continue to push its onscreen/on-page relationships in a progressive direction. For now, though, it’s fun just to hear that De Sena is such a fan of the Zukka Avatar: The Last Airbender ship.
Source: Braving the Elements