The character of Prince Zuko is one of the most beloved in all of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the show’s creators have now revealed how he came to be. Voiced spectacularly by Dante Basco throughout the original series and later by Bruce Davison in The Legend of Korra, Zuko’s story of redemption is a huge part of what’s made Avatar: The Last Airbender and its characters popular for so long. Zuko started as a more traditional antagonist before morphing into something else entirely.
It seems ridiculous now to think of the show's world without Zuko in it, given how central he is to the original series and the universe at large. However, Avatar: The Last Airbender was originally created around the Aang character and his battle against the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation. While Zuko obviously ended up playing into that narrative in huge ways, the broad strokes of the story didn’t involve his character at first, according to the show’s creators.
Speaking on Avatar: Braving the Elements, Nickelodeon’s official Avatar: The Last Airbender podcast hosted by Basco and Korra voice actor Janet Varney, co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino discussed the origins of the Zuko character. Konietzko revealed Zuko wasn’t part of their original plan, and that his creation actually came from a suggestion by Nickelodeon executive and producer Eric Coleman. Read Konietzko’s full quote below.
I always call Eric the godfather of Zuko. Zuko’s character completely came out of a note from Eric. We had our big Fire Lord, you know, the big bad boss at the end of the story, and Eric was like, ‘yeah, that’s cool, but you need some boots on the ground. You need someone who’s going after them the whole time.’ And we were like, ‘yeah, yeah,’ and we were thinking of an adult, and he was like, wouldn’t it be scarier if it was a kid, who was like really driven? And I said, ‘can he have a scar?’
Without Zuko, it’s hard to imagine Avatar: The Last Airbender having the same kind of lasting impact that it’s had. Konietzko’s story speaks to the difficulty and complexity of creating a great show, where so many things have to fall into place in just the right way to form a compelling whole. Avatar: The Last Airbender had a great world and overall concept from the start, but it also had stellar voice direction, authentic martial arts consultation, a gorgeous soundtrack, and so many other things that went right to bring it all together.
Now that Konietzko and DiMartino are back in action with the recently formed Avatar Studios, Zuko could be making a return as well. The studio’s first project will be a new, animated feature film set in the Avatar universe, and some are theorizing that it could star adult versions of the original show’s characters. That’s a story audiences have wanted to see for a long time, and it could allow Basco to step back into the role of Zuko after years away. Regardless of what Avatar Studios ends up creating, it should be exciting to return to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender once more.
Source: Avatar: Braving the Elements