Our First Look At the Next Airbender

Ever since that James Cameron movie quietly hit the box office, people who want to talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender have had to be specific. So: This is the first official look we’ve gotten at the face of Korra, the heroine of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, the greenlit miniseries and sequel to the Airbender series, which is happening despite the schlock and awe of M. Knight Shyamalan‘s The Last Airbender movie.

Seven major castmembers have been announced today, as well as the characters they will be playing.

While the cast is rounded out by some career voice actors like Lance Henriksen and David Faustino, Daniel Dae Kim of LOST and J.K. Simmons (who, after Law & Order and Spider-man we’ll watch or listen to in anything) are also on board. Kim has actually been involved in Airbender before, voicing Fong, the Earth Nation general who misguidedly attempts to teach Aang to purposefully trigger the Avatar State. J.K. Simmons has secured the role of Tenzin, Korra’s Airbending teacher and the son of the last Avatar Aang and waterbending master Katara.

So we’re glad the series is keeping its commitment to having utterly badass older characters in it.

Seychelle Gabriel will also tantalizingly be returning to the cast. Her role in the first series was that of Princess Yue, a character who concievably could appear in the new series.  As the Moon Spirit, she would A) still be alive in this sequel series, and B) have good reason to interact with a waterbender Avatar like Korra. Gabriel is listed as voicing a character named Asami, however, so we’ll have to wait to see if Yue actually puts in an appearance.

UPDATE: Never mind, Seychelle Gabriel was Yue in the movie, not the show. IMDB, Y U NO BE MORE OBVIOUSLY SPECIFIC?

Korra herself will be voiced by Janet Varney, and other cast members include child actress Kiernan Shipka as Jinora.

(The Wall Street Journal, via io9.)