Avatar Live-Action Actor is Ready to Shave His Head to Play Aang

Gordon Cormier, star of Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series, is getting excited about shaving his head to play Aang. Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s beloved Nickelodeon show about a fantastical world inspired by the four elements has only grown in popularity in the years since it went off the air. Though the previous attempt to bring Avatar to live-action, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, was an infamous misfire, Netflix has been working on a new series since 2018

For some time, progress on the live-action Avatar series was rather slow. The project suffered a blow in 2020 when DiMartino and Konietzko, who had been serving as producers, exited Netflix’s production over creative differences. This sent a negative message toward fans, who had already been let down by The Last Airbender. Nevertheless, the new Avatar is moving forward with Albert Kim as showrunner. Earlier this month, the four leads were finally announced, with Cormier taking titular role as Aang. Kiawentiio will play Katara, while Ian Ousley and Dallas Liu will fill in the roles of Sokka and Zuko, respectively.

With production on Avatar drawing closer, Cormier is expressing his excitement about stepping into the role of Aang. In responding to various comments on his Instagram (via Avatar News), Cormier confirmed he will be shaving his head to play Aang. “absolutely!!!! I am Aang!!” he wrote, later following it up with, “couldn’t be Aang any other way!!!” As for when this physical transformation will take place, Cormier said he’s holding out “for as long as I can” because he doesn’t “want to sunburn my scalp!“

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Cormier’s excitement for Avatar is infectious, and if his eager responses are anything like the energy he’ll bring to the part of Aang, he’s perfectly cast. Shaving one’s head for a role is a major commitment, but as Cormier said, he can’t play Aang any other way. In fact, the confirmation that he’ll be bald for Avatar is just an indication that Netflix plans to do this right. Of course, one could argue emulating the animated characters’ appearances is the bare minimum for Avatar, but fans can still find comfort in it.

Filming on Netflix’s Avatar reportedly begins in November, so it will still be some time before Cormier takes this major step towards becoming Aang. After years of no major updates, the Avatar: The Last Airbender cast announcement from a few weeks ago led to much excitement and debate online. There will be a lot of interest surrounding how the four leads will bring these beloved characters to life, but one could argue Cormier is already a fitting actor for the part. All he has to do now is lose his hair.

Source: Avatar News/Twitter

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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