Avatar Ozai Casting May Suggest Last Airbender Story Timeline Changes

Avatar: Ozai Casting May Suggest Last Airbender Story Timeline Changes

Fire Lord Ozai already being cast for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender could be an early hint at the show changing the original cartoon.

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Avatar Ozai Casting May Suggest Last Airbender Story Timeline Changes

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender has found its Fire Lord Ozai in Daniel Dae Kim, and in doing so, might hint at things progressing differently from the cartoon. Anytime a story is adapted into a new medium, it should be expected that parts of the source material would be changed in some way or outright cut. Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar likely won’t be any different in that regard, and this casting news might give an idea of where the differences might start.

Fire Lord Ozai was the main antagonist of the original series, the leader of the Fire Nation and the person Aang needed to defeat to end the Hundred Year War and restore balance to the world. Despite his importance to the story, however, Ozai’s face is never revealed to the audience until the first episode of the third and final season, with all of his appearances up until that point having his face obscured in some way. In doing so, the show was able to keep Ozai detached from the rest of the case and sell him as a figure above the rest of the villains – a status befitting that of the overarching antagonist.

The fact that Ozai’s actor in the live-action series, Daniel Dae Kim, has already been revealed might suggest that that won’t be executed in the same manner in the Netflix adaptation of Avatar. While it would be easy enough to hide Kim’s face in the shadows just as the cartoon Ozai’s was, doing so for two seasons of television and several years of real-time would be a little odd when the actor’s identity is already known, so it’s likely that the show isn’t planning on doing that. In which case, it could mean that Ozai will have an expanded role in the story, whether it be through appearances at parts of the story he wasn’t originally there for or simply for expanded characterization.

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For the former, the show could be doing something similar to what was done in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. In the film adaptation of the series, Fire Lord Ozai, played by Cliff Curtis, appeared several times throughout the movie to discuss plans with Admiral Zhao, with the film making little attempt to keep his appearance hidden. The Netflix adaptation might be attempting to do the same thing with Kim: putting Ozai into parts of the story he wasn’t originally around for so that his specific insight on something can be understood.

For the latter, the idea of Kim’s Ozai having more screen time could be in service of giving Ozai more characterization than what he had in the show. In the original show, Fire Lord Ozai existed largely as a means of giving Aang one specific obstacle to overcome in the end to save the world, so he wasn’t given much to work with beyond being an evil dictator trying to take over the world. If Kim’s Ozai is going to have additional screen time, it would likely be used to flesh out his character in some way. The official synopsis for Kim’s Ozai (via Deadline) even suggests as much by saying that his “drive to conquer and unite the world under firebender rule is a family burden — he [Ozai] believes that it’s his destiny to finish a war started by his ancestors,” an aspect to the character that doesn’t exactly exist in the original show.

Whatever ends up happening, it’s undeniable that Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender won’t be the exact same as the original series, and Fire Lord Ozai already being cast could be the first sign of that. Whether it’s through increased characterization or simply additional screen time, Kim’s Ozai is likely to have an increased role in the story, and there’s no telling what other changes might spin out from there.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/avatar-last-airbender-netflix-ozai-story-changes-timeline/

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